There's No One-Size-Fits-All Reason for Biodiversity in Madagascar

Some places in the world simply have more biodiversity than others. Why this is, though, has long puzzled scientists. Now, researchers have found that no single "one-size-fits-all" model can explain how biodiversity hotspots come to be.

In this case, the researchers looked at the island of Madagascar. This area is known as having a plethora of species. Cut off from the African and Indian mainlands for more than 80 million years, the animals on this island have evolved into a unique menagerie of creatures. Yet scientists have long struggled to explain how Madagascar gave rise to so many unusual animals.

In this case, the scientists analyzed the geographic distribution of Madagascar's lizards, snakes, frogs and tortoises-more than 700 species of reptiles and amphibians.

"What governs the distribution of, say, a particular group of frogs isn't the same as what governs the distribution of a particular group of snakes," said Jason Brown, co-author of the new study, in a news release. "A one-size-fits-all model doesn't exist."

As an example, the researchers found that changes in elevation best predicted which parts of the island had high proportions of unique tree frog species. However, the biggest influence on why some areas had higher proportions of unique leaf chameleons was climate stability through time.

"One of the lessons learned is that when trying to assess the impacts of future climate change on species distribution and survival, we have to deal in specifics rather than generalities, since each group of animals experiences its environment in a way that is unique to its life history and other biological characteristics," said Anne Yoder, one of the researchers.

The findings could help with future conservation efforts. Not only that, but they show that it's important to take species' responses into account.

The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.