Land snail biogeography and endemism in south-eastern Africa: Implications for the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot

The greater MPA region for land snails is much similar to that recognized for vertebrates [24], than to the more restricted MPA hotspot. This suggests the possibility of the greater MPA being a common region of animal endemism–one that needs to be tested for cross-taxon con- gruence with other invertebrate groups. The current vertebrate bias in conservation planning needs to be addressed as more data become available for invertebrate groups, which can sub- stantially broaden the taxonomic basis for conservation prioritization [9, 108–111]. Since many invertebrate groups have limited vagility, they also facilitate the identification of CONEs, which might be overlooked in an analysis of the flora or vertebrate fauna at the same scale. A preliminary spatial comparison of CONEs with existing protected areas reveals a major gap in Pondoland and the southern Transkei coastal belt (Fig 4E), where the land snail endemism is highest (Fig 5), while Natal Midlands, Natal coastal belt-Ngoye, northern Mpu- malanga Escarpment and Soutpansberg are also not adequately protected. Hence, as acknowl- edged previously [15], the protection of CONEs identified here needs urgent attention. Mechanisms for the protection of smaller parcels of land targeted at the conservation of nar- row endemic and less vagile invertebrates need to be included into conservation planning. Supporting information S1 Appendix. Land snail species incidence matrix (n = 73; 12 genera and three families) in 40 operational geographic units (OGUs). See Fig 1 for the OGU codes. (XLSX) Acknowledgments

We thank Dayani Ratnayake-Perera, Nikara Mahadeo and Lasith Viduranga Perera for help with the data analyses, mapping and discussion. Prof. Bernhard Hausdorf, Prof. Jeff Nekola and anonymous reviewers, as well as Prof. Geerat J. Vermeij the academic editor of PLOS ONE provided insightful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. Author Contributions Conceptualization: Sandun J. Perera, David G. Herbert, Şerban Procheş. Data curation: Sandun J. Perera, David G. Herbert. Formal analysis: Sandun J. Perera, Syd Ramdhani. Funding acquisition: Sandun J. Perera, David G. Herbert, Şerban Procheş. Investigation: Sandun J. Perera, David G. Herbert, Şerban Procheş, Syd Ramdhani. Methodology: Sandun J. Perera, Şerban Procheş, Syd Ramdhani. Project administration: David G. Herbert, Şerban Procheş. Resources: David G. Herbert, Şerban Procheş, Syd Ramdhani. Software: Şerban Procheş, Syd Ramdhani. Supervision: David G. Herbert, Şerban Procheş. Validation: Şerban Procheş, Syd Ramdhani. Visualization: Sandun J. Perera. Writing – original draft: Sandun J. Perera. Writing – review & editing: David G. Herbert, Şerban Procheş, Syd Ramdhani. PLOS ONE Land snail endemism in the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0248040 March 4, 2021 21 / 26