The Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary Islands and Cabo Verde are commonly united under the term
“Macaronesia”. This study investigates the coherency and validity of Macaronesia as a biogeographic
unit using six marine groups with very different dispersal abilities: coastal fishes, echinoderms,
gastropod molluscs, brachyuran decapod crustaceans, polychaete annelids, and macroalgae. We found
no support for the current concept of Macaronesia as a coherent marine biogeographic unit. All marine
groups studied suggest the exclusion of Cabo Verde from the remaining Macaronesian archipelagos and thus, Cabo Verde should be given the status of a biogeographic subprovince within the West African
Transition province. We propose to redefine the Lusitanian biogeographical province, in which we
include four ecoregions: the South European Atlantic Shelf, the Saharan Upwelling, the Azores, and a
new ecoregion herein named Webbnesia, which comprises the archipelagos of Madeira, Selvagens and
the Canary Islandsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
