A current look into the rich biodiversity of the lost world of tepuis
Hard-to-access rocky walls, high cliffs and a great amount of endemic communities in those peaks shape the typical landscape of tepuis, authentic natural laboratories to study the origin and evolution of biota and neotropical ecosystems.
These rare ecosystems -which inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyleʼs The Lost World- are the axis of the book Biodiversity of Pantepui. The pristine “Lost World” of the Neotropical Guiana Highlands (Ed. Elsevier-Academic Press), published in an edition led by the experts Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia, from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona (UB) and Valentí Rull, from the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera of the Spanish Scientific Research Council (ICTJA-CSIC). The authors of this publication are the experts Otto Huber, from the Museum of Nature of South Tyrol (Italy), and Josefa Celsa Señaris, from the Natural History Museum La Salle de Caracas (Venezuela).
Hard-to-access rocky walls, high cliffs and a great amount of endemic communities in those peaks shape the typical landscape of tepuis, authentic natural laboratories to study the origin and evolution of biota and neotropical ecosystems.
These rare ecosystems -which inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyleʼs The Lost World- are the axis of the book Biodiversity of Pantepui. The pristine “Lost World” of the Neotropical Guiana Highlands (Ed. Elsevier-Academic Press), published in an edition led by the experts Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia, from the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona (UB) and Valentí Rull, from the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera of the Spanish Scientific Research Council (ICTJA-CSIC). The authors of this publication are the experts Otto Huber, from the Museum of Nature of South Tyrol (Italy), and Josefa Celsa Señaris, from the Natural History Museum La Salle de Caracas (Venezuela).
Pantepui, an unknown world to the scientific community
The new volume gathers for the first time the most recent knowledge on biota and the origin and evolution of these biogeographical regions -Pantepui- of the Guiana Shield. This great geological shield in South America, which ranges from Venezuela, the Guianas and Brazil, was traditionally regarded as one of the unaltered regions of the planet. “The most important objective of the book was to gather biogeographical patterns of the diversity and endemism of Pantepui”, says Valentí Rull. “So far, every expert had published in journals -sometimes with little outreach- on the findings of the specific group of analysed bodies”.
Now, the new book gathers the existing knowledge and analyses from the geographical, ecological and evolutionary perspective. “Pantepui is a key scenario to explain and understand the causes that create the known latitudinal gradient of biodiversity”, notes Rull. “These gradients are expressed with high biological diversity values in the tropics, which decreases towards the planet poles. In short, the region offers one of the few real opportunities to study this general pattern and see the natural environmental factors, evolutionary processes and ecological mechanisms that created the high tropical biodiversity”.
The biodiversity in the Guiana Shield peaks, in danger
The new publication analyses the main threats to preserve the biodiversity in Pantepui, a great region with ecosystems of great interest and value for the scientific community. According to the lecturer Teresa Vegas-Vilarrúbia, from the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the UB, “the lack of specific studies on the ecological requirements of the species in Pantepui and its adaptation, the bureaucratic difficulties to do research in the original place of the tepuis peaks, and the lack of the proper management for the conservation are factors that make the process of knowledge on the neotropical regions more difficult”.
Global warming is another of the big threats for the conservation of the biodiversity of Pantepui. “These effects could be fatal for the endemic species that live in the tepuis peaks and cannot migrate to higher areas”, notes the lecturer Vegas-Vilarrúbia.
“According to the IPCC climate forecasts -continues Vegas-Vilarrúbia- a 22 % of the endemic species in Pantepui -which canʼt be found in any other place- are estimated to lose their habitat by 2050, a figure that could rise to 49 % by the end of the century. This would involve their definite extinction at a global scale. It is urgent to focus future studies on the ecology of the threatened species. This is how we can opt for conservation measures with a good basis and guarantees”.
“Global warming is not only intensifying but also acceleration, but the governmentsʼ and big energy corporationsʼ decisive response actions are weak, and late. We are running out of chances to act”, concludes the lecturer Vegas-Vilarrúbia.