Spatial scale and β-diversity of terrestrial vertebrates in Mexico

Abstract

Patterns of diversity are scale dependent and beta-diversity is not the exception. Mexico is megadiverse dueto its high beta diversity, but little is known if it is scale-dependent and/or taxonomic-dependent. We explored thesequestions based on the self-similarity hypothesis of beta-diversity across spatial scales. Using geographic distributionranges of 2 513 species, we compared the beta-diversity patterns of 4 groups of terrestrial vertebrates, across 7 spatialscales (from ~10 km2 to 160 000 km2), within 5 different (historically and environmentally) regions in Mexico:Northwest, Northeast, Centre, Southeast and the Yucatán Peninsula.