Mountain caves of the central region of Veracruz: A vertebrate biodiversity reservoir in a Neotropical hotspot

pattern. Conversely, in volcanic caves, all vertebrate classes showed high evenness due to more constant effective species numbers for all q orders. Populations of vertebrates such as birds and mammals tend to have more species and fewer common and dominant species [47], and therefore the Hill number profiles observed in our study are consistent with what has been reported in terrestrial ecosystems for these groups of vertebrates [9,48]). Hence, a higher spe- cies richness (q0) and fewer common (q1), dominant (q2) and very dominant species (q3) of vertebrates is the rule in caves and not the exception. This indicates the capacity of these verte- brate groups to inhabit cave environments, even with the habitat restrictions encountered in them. Despite the environmental limitations of light, temperature, and humidity in the caves, we found a high abundance, species richness, and diversity of vertebrates. This indicates that vertebrates can adapt to these conditions, perhaps because they find resources such as food and suitable spaces. Fig 8. Dendrogram of similarity in vertebrate species richness between caves of karst (A) and volcanic (B) origin (Bray Curtis index—cophenetic correlation 0.89 and 0.99, respectively) in Veracruz, Mexico. Karst caves: MT = cueva de los Maltos, NC = cueva del nacimiento de 7 aguas, MY = cueva del Maguey, PN = cueva de Pinoltepec, AY = cueva de Atoyac, AI = cueva del Aire, PL = cueva de la Palma, RE = cueva de la Reja, TP = cueva de Tepeapulco, PI = cueva la

Pintada, OJ = cueva de ojo de agua grande, and BQ = cueva del boquero´n de Capulapa. Volcanic caves: ES = cueva de la Escalera, GT = cueva de la Garganta, VL = cueva el Volcancillo, TN = cueva de Tenampa. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306105.g008 PLOS ONE Vertebrates in caves of Neotropical hotspot PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0306105 August 9, 2024 12 / 19