Ecology and Evolution of the African Great Lakes and Their Faunas

Abstract

The Great Lakes of East Africa are collectively the earth's most remarkable and species-rich freshwater feature. Intrinsic biological factors and extrinsic ecological opportunities allowed much of the lakes' spectacular biological diversity to evolve through evolutionary (often adaptive) radiation and explosive speciation. Beyond evolutionary patterns and processes that led to this remarkable biodiversity and its astonishing morphological disparity, we highlight ecosystem functioning and complex biotic interactions such as coevolution. Comparative biogeographic patterns for vertebrates and invertebrates are discussed, as are patterns of diversity and disparity through the late Cenozoic. We demonstrate that the African Great Lakes, because of excellent fossil archives, are a phenomenal setting to integrate micro- and macroevolution. Unfortunately, these amazing ecosystems are also subject to various anthropogenic stressors at global and regional scales, which have already impacted their stability and threaten part of their extraordinary biodiversity with extinction.