Macaronesia as a Fruitful Arena for Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology

Research in Macaronesia has led to substantial advances in ecology, evolution and conservation biology. We review the scientific developments achieved in this region, and outline promising research avenues enhancing conservation. Some of these discoveries indicate that the Macaronesian flora and fauna are composed of rather young lineages, not Tertiary relicts, predominantly of European origin. Macaronesia also seems to be an important source region for back-colonisation of continental fringe regions on both sides of the Atlantic. This group of archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands, and Cabo Verde) has been crucial to learn about the particularities of macroecological patterns and interaction networks on islands, providing evidence for the development of the General Dynamic Model of oceanic island biogeography and subsequent updates. However, in addition to exceptionally high richness of endemic species, Macaronesia is also home to a growing number of threatened species, along with invasive alien plants and animals. Several innovative conservation and management actions are in place to protect its biodiversity from these and other drivers of global change. The Macaronesian Islands are a well-suited field of study for island ecology and evolution research, mostly due to its special geological layout with 40 islands grouped within five archipelagos differing in geological age, climate and isolation. A large amount of data is now available for several groups of organisms on and around many of these islands. However, continued efforts should be made toward compiling new information on their biodiversity, to pursue various fruitful research avenues and develop appropriate conservation management tools. The Island Biology Interest Group (IBIG, http://www.ibigbiology.com) is grateful to the organisers of the 2016 Island Biology Conference held in the Azores for promoting the symposium that led to this manuscript. We thank Joaquin Hortal for useful comments on an early version of the manuscript, and also Guido Jones for his language editing funded by the Cabildo de Tenerife, under the TFinnova Programme supported by MEDI and FDCAN funds. We are grateful to Salvador de la Cruz and Elena Morales for extracting updated information from the Biodiversity Data Bank of the Canary Islands. We also thank Ricardo Ramalho (Cardiff University) for fruitful discussions on the geological age of the Cabo Verde islands. This manuscript is a contribution by the INCT in Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation funded by MCTIC/CNPq/FAPEG (grant 465610/2014-5).