Biogeography of freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionida) in Texas and implications on conservation biology

Abstract Aim Biogeography seeks to identify and explain the spatial distributions of species has become an important tool used by conservationists protect manage aquatic organisms. Texas, located in southwestern United States, is home 52 freshwater mussels, 9 which are endemic Texas 7 that neighboring states or countries. There have been two major attempts classify this fauna into biogeographical provinces; however, both efforts relied on limited distribution information outdated taxonomy. To address issues, we set out delineate biogeographic provinces for mussels using a comprehensive distributional dataset >28,000 records molecular information. Location Southwestern States. Methods We compiled community data 48 mussel occur Texas. performed algorithmic hierarchal cluster analysis (HCA) nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) based Euclidean distance groupings. conducted similar sequence our target species. Results Based results from data, identified seven Texas: Great Plains, Mississippi Embayment, Sabine‐Neches, Trinity‐San Jacinto, Central Rio Grande Coastal. However, Coastal Plains were not included recognized previous work. Main conclusions Our approach integrating datasets provides assessment biogeography serves as model future studies. findings also shed light ecological, evolutionary geologic processes shaping communities conservation remaining biodiversity state.