Influence of past and current factors on the beta diversity of coastal lagoon fish communities in South America

We compiled fish species composition data for 129 lagoons along the Atlantic coast of South America between latitudes 0° and 36° S, which encompass eight freshwater ecoregions of the world (FEOW). The fish data consisted of a presence/absence matrix of species by lagoon. Most data were compiled by Petry et al. (2016), but we added new data by searching fish collection records in the SpeciesLink database (http://splink.cria.org.br/) and in primary research papers. A taxonomic and nomenclatural verification was performed across the dataset to validate all the species records. We included only lagoons that were subjected to specific community sampling protocols. Exclusively estuarine species or occasional marine species were not included, since we were interested in biogeographical processes related to freshwater species only.