Meeting Abstract

P2-27   -   Climatic Suitability Predicts Species Richness in New Zealand's Mite Harvestman Fauna Moyes, N*; Anderson, MD; Shu, Y; Fu, PA; Anderson, SF; Boyer, SL; Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota; Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota; Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota; Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota; Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota; Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota nmoyes@macalester.edu

Originally part of the Gondwanan supercontinent, New Zealand has been isolated from any other landmass for the past 80 million years, giving it a unique array of endemic plants and animals. Mite harvestmen are dispersal-limited organisms; their distribution around the globe today is linked to continental drift tens of millions of years ago. Likewise, their distribution in New Zealand is linked to the geological and climatic history of the islands. The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) left much of the South Island underneath glaciers and drastically changed climatic conditions of unglaciated regions, profoundly impacting New Zealand’s biota. In this study, we constructed a model of climatic suitability for over 1100 collections of mite harvestmen from both the North and South islands, incorporating locality data from museum collections spanning the last century. We found a positive relationship between climatic suitability and species richness across 29 regions of New Zealand established by previous researchers for meteorological and biological studies. We also projected suitability onto the highly altered landmass of New Zealand during the LGM to find possible refugia, in order to further understand the historical determinants of diversity for these animals.