Variability and General Trends in the Geographic Distribution and Climatic Niche of Endemic and Cosmopolitan Drosophilidae Species in Subtropical Regions of the Neotropics.

Abstract

The Neotropical region is a vast and heterogeneous ecozone harboring diverse Drosophilidae Fallén 1823 species. However, these species' distribution patterns and climatic requirements are poorly understood. In this study, we aimed to estimate differences in the climatic niche and distribution patterns among species to test the hypothesis that endemic and cosmopolitan species occurring in the Neotropics present different climatic niches, such that distribution range and niche breadth are highly correlated among species. For this task, we evaluated the geographic distributions and the climatic niches of 47 endemic and cosmopolitan drosophilids occurring in subtropical regions of the Neotropics using raw climatic data from collection records and environmental niche models (ENMs). We showed that the studied species varied in two highly correlated properties: the distribution ranges and the environmental niche breadth. Moreover, significant differences were observed between endemic and cosmopolitan drosophilids in terms of variable importance and climatic niches. Most of the studied species are distributed in regions under mild climatic conditions, but there are many species inhabiting harsher environments. Generally, the results suggest that several Neotropical drosophilid species may be highly vulnerable to global warming, potentially serving as bioindicator species for assessing the impact of climate change.