Robertson DR, Cramer KL

Shore fishes and biogeographic subdivisions of the Tropical Eastern Pacific

The Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) is an isolated marine biogeographic region with a high level of endemism among coastal fish species (see www.stri.org/sftep). Robertson and Cramer assessed concepts of that region and how it is biogeographically subdivided by analyzing the distributions of resident shore-fishes throughout the TEP and immediately adjacent areas, taking into account local variation in faunal similarity (among all species, endemics, and different ecological subgroups), levels of endemism, functional-group composition, and species richness. The result is a new arrangement of TEP subdivisions, with two continental provinces: (1) the entire Gulf of California + lower Pacific Baja California; and (2) the remainder of the shoreline extending to northern Peru; plus (3) an ocean-island province that includes the Galapagos and 4 other islands/archipelagos.

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