Aegean Archipelago Species Richness Under Past and Present Sea-Level Stands

Late Quaternary sea-level fluctuations dramatically reshaped the Aegean archipelago's geography, with the Late Glacial Maximum configuration showing the most significant change. This dataset contains taxon-island occupancy data for angiosperms across 70 islands and centipedes across 56 islands, compiled by researchers from Ghent University Hospital. The study uses reconstructed paleogeographies and Generalized Linear Mixed Models to analyze the impact of past connectivity on native and endemic species diversity.

Use Cases

• Modeling Island Species-Area Relationships (ISARs) based on present-day and past island areas.
• Analyzing the effect of paleo-connectivity on endemic species representation based on land-bridge island classifications.
• Comparing species richness drivers between continental and oceanic archipelagos using paleogeographical scenarios.
• Investigating supersaturation of native species on islands based on historical mainland connections.

Strengths

• Includes taxon occupancy data for two distinct biological groups: angiosperms and centipedes.
• Analyzes species richness under three specific sea-level scenarios: current, median over nine Glacial-Interglacial cycles, and the Late Glacial Maximum.
• Applies multiple metrics of goodness-of-fit for model selection, as mentioned in the description.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Aegean Sea study area.

Provenance

Source

Ghent University Hospital

Collection Method

Compiled from published data and taxon-island occupancy records.

Time Range

Late Quaternary period, focusing on the Late Glacial Maximum.

Geography

Aegean Sea archipelago, Greece.