Potential biodiversity maps of Geadephaga (Coleoptera) from subantarctic forests: Relating diversity patterns and conservation hotspots with forest integrity

Abstract

1. Potential biodiversity maps (PBMs) allow the identification of areas with differentpotential for conservation, to support political decisions about the managementand protection of biodiversity.2. As these maps are seldom constructed for inconspicuous species, we proposed todevelop PBMs for species belonging to the Geadephaga (Coleoptera), which is agroup of beetles that contributes as predators for pest suppression and other eco-system services in forest ecosystems. Given that human activities are reducing for-est integrity, we consider that it is crucial to recognize how diversity patterns ofGeadephaga are related to degraded forests.3. We developed these maps for the Geadephaga associated with subantarctic forestsconsidering diversity measures of species richness, specificity, and rarity to estab-lish spatial relationships between each diversity measure and different levels of for-est integrity, and to identify potential hotspots and suggest conservation priorities.4. Results showed a latitudinal pattern of decrease in scores on richness and specific-ity from north to south, but a patchy pattern of species rarity across the region.Outcomes also show that areas with high scores of diversity measures are over-lapped with degraded forest, and that hotspots have a low spatial overlapbetween them.5. In this work, we provide for the first time regional PBMs at a relatively high spatialresolution of three different diversity measures for Geadephaga that inhabit subantarctic forest. These maps constitute tools that allow not only to recognizepotential diversity patterns of these insects, but also to offer valuable informationto be used in conservation decision-making.