Biological Sciences
Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems across space and time. It examines the factors that influence these patterns, such as climate, geology, and evolutionary history. By understanding biogeography, scientists can gain insights into the processes driving biodiversity and the impacts of environmental changes on species distributions.
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12 Key excerpts on "Biogeography"
eBook - PDF- Manoranjan Prasad Sinha(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Delve Publishing(Publisher)
Biogeography refers to the study of the distribution of different life forms at different geographical areas over a period of time. Biogeography can be broadly divided into two different categories called as the ecological Biogeography and historical Biogeography. Ecological Biogeography deals with the different types of distribution patterns for various living organisms and the historical Biogeography deals with the long-term and large-scale distribution patterns of several living organism. 1.3.3. Biogeography and Biodiversity Biogeography is known to be a field of science which is a combination of the concepts of biology and geology. There are some eminent biogeographers such as C. Barry Cox and Peter D. who write about Biogeography as a field of biology that explains the patterns of distribution and the interaction of species. They state that Biogeography is a field which deals with the relationship between evolution of living organisms and the plate tectonics of several organisms, The concepts of biodiversity may be explained in relationship with the climate and latitude. The studies indicate that there is need for various organisms to live in different habitats such as animals and plants and the reasons for the presence of a specific soil chemistry, moisture levels, temperature range or spatial structure of different organisms must be extremely interesting. Therefore, the different branches of the science such as climatology, soil science, geology, physiology, ecology, and behavioral sciences are being explored to find answers to the distribution of these living organism. Biogeography is known to be extremely important in the analysis and distribution of different organisms. These studies facilitate in understanding of the various changes in distribution that would arise and the factors that contribute to the changes in the distribution of living organisms and their adaptations.
eBook - PDF- Judith Rosales(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Society Publishing(Publisher)
CONTENTS Abstract ............ .............................................................................................................. 2 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Ecological Biogeography .......................................................................................... 4 1.3 Historical Biogeography ......................................................................................... 14 1.4 Present Work: an Evolution Biogeography, The Link Between Biogeography and Biodiversity ............................................................................ 33 References ......... ........................................................................................................... 39 INTRODUCTION TO Biogeography 1 CHAPTER “Of these three essential factors, SPACE might be said to be one with which Biogeography is primarily concerned. However, space necessarily interplays with TIME and FORM; therefore, the three factors are as one of biogeographic concern.” —Leon Croizat Biogeography and Biodiversity 2 ABSTRACT “Biogeography is an integrative field of inquiry that unites concepts and information from ecology, evolutionary biology, geology, and physical geography.” Biogeography refers to the circulation of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. In this chapter, we will talk about the basic concepts of Biogeography and how it changes with the changing world. In the second half of the chapter, the book refers Biogeography in 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and different thoughts and proposals of various scientists that were important for that time are discussed. At the end of the chapter, the rise of the thought of vicarianism and the beginning of a new era in Biogeography are presented.
eBook - PDFHistorical Biogeography
An Introduction
- Jorge V. Crisci, Liliana Katinas, Paula Posadas(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Harvard University Press(Publisher)
INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS HISTORICAL Biogeography? INVESTIGATIVE STUDIES are often characterized by a central plot or metaphor that provides solid ground in which theories root themselves (Haraway, 1976). Such metaphors serve to bridge abstractions and the real world (Hesse, 1966). In the last decade, a metaphor created by the Italian-French botanist Léon Croizat (1964) has unified the field of com-parative biology. His metaphor views biological diversity as a historical fact that occurs in three dimensions: form, space, and time. Thus, biological diversity is understood as a result of the history of life upon Earth expressed through its changes of form in space and time. The term “form” refers not only to the morphological characters of living beings, but also to others, such as molecular ones (DNA sequences, for example). Systematics is the part of comparative biology that stresses the form, paleontology and embryology stress the time, and Biogeography stresses the space. DEFINITION AND CONCEPTS Biogeography may be simple to define—the study of the geographic dis-tribution of living beings—but this apparent simplicity hides a great com-1 plexity. Biogeography goes further than the classic disciplines to include such subjects as geology, geography, and biology. Thus, it is not surpris-ing that Biogeography means different things to different researchers. For convenience, biogeographers have recognized two traditions in biogeographic investigation, ecological Biogeography and historical bio-geography. Swiss botanist Agustin P. de Candolle (1820) was the first to distinguish these two traditions. According to his definition, the expla-nations for ecological Biogeography depend upon physical causes that are acting in the present time, whereas the explanations for historical Biogeography depend upon causes that existed in the past.
eBook - PDFComparative Biogeography
Discovering and Classifying Biogeographical Patterns of a Dynamic Earth
- Lynne Parenti, Malte Ebach(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- University of California Press(Publisher)
Biogeography entails testing hypotheses of area homology among different groups of organisms. ESTABLISHING A COMPARATIVE Biogeography Some claim there is a division between those who study marine and those who study terrestrial organisms. Others believe the division is between those who use molecules and gene trees and those who use morphology and species trees. Others see a division based on eco-logical versus systematic methods or fossil versus living organisms. Some argue that Biogeography is about explaining species histories, while others insist it concerns the classification of biotic areas. And then there are those who argue that all of the methods should be unified under one model. Whatever Biogeography now constitutes, it is not consistent and does not form a readily recognizable research program. 12 There are two conceptual approaches to Biogeography: an evolu-tionary (modeling or mechanism approach) and a systematic (natural classification) approach. The former deals with individual taxa, mod-eling their distributional histories and proposing evolutionary mecha-nisms (competition, predation, dispersal, vicariance, etc.), whereas the latter concerns the search for area homology and of the classification of area homologs based on biotic relationships (Ebach and Morrone, 2005 ). We aim to establish a comparative Biogeography, a method or approach that incorporates systematic Biogeography (biotic rela-tionships and their classification and distribution) and evolutionary Biogeography (proposal of possible mechanisms responsible for dis-tributions). We focus first on description and application of a system-atic Biogeography, to demonstrate biotic area homology, and then explore mechanisms or processes that may have given rise to general patterns.
eBook - PDF- Joseph P. Stoltman(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
8 Biogeography DANIEL G. GAVIN University of Oregon requires geographic the ment and the size this interest the of Species change, and diversity approaches including questions species occur taught tion classification these patterns greatest abundance Biogeographic set divide how biology, of these in of diversity). i to of are and of basic fields life a o species questions Africa, g individuals approaches. evolution e is patterns species the have broad on we and many o species, scientific g the biogeographic evolution, of not of r taxonomic of life Earth. a see also across scales disciplines, h research perspective. p so and interactions Biogeographers in that study, y is The that species. is and falls the the clear, been a of level world under Ecological explain and usually the the a plate habitat discoveries may and tropical and landscape, research, driving fundamental is As thus, causes study (The there requires patterns geology. today: typically including tectonics. that children, the these potentially that research of of the science requirements rain of hierarchical Biogeography seek affect factors though is the are the the basic forests perspectives (for typically divided Understanding effect efforts past question the ecology, the spatial to spatial we in gradients behind interbreed some patterns. answer example, in of support 2 taxonomy. distribution among of defined centuries, Biogeography have system conserva- distribution and that some patterns to addresses the all from move- synthe- the These in is and climate cases why lions been bio- as for two high all of of of produce fertile offspring. Biogeographers also work at higher (genus, family) or lower (subspecies) taxonomic levels). Ecological Biogeography is therefore concerned with processes that have occurred fairly recently in time (for biogeographers, "recent" often refers to the past 10,000 years or so).
eBook - PDFEcology
Principles and Applications
- J. L. Chapman, M. J. Reiss(Authors)
- 1998(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
EIGHTEEN Biogeography 18.1 Species distribution - where and why? So far we have looked at the distribution of organisms in communities and have seen how particular communities are typical of certain environmental conditions. On a larger, global scale a particular species may occur only on one continent or island, only in the tropics or on a single mountain range. Most of us, for example, would recognise Figure 18.2 as African savannah. Often the same ecosystem occurs in several parts of the world, but the species or genera in the community are different in different regions. The study of this geographical distribution of species is called Biogeography. Biogeographers inves- tigate the location of species and the reasons for the distributions they find. Thus Biogeography links ecology with geology, earth history, evolution, climatology and geography. If you look back at Figure 17.2 you can see the distribution of the major terrestrial biomes of the world. The same biome often occurs on several continents or marine regions. For example, tundra and boreal forest occur in northern America and Europe; temperate grasslands are found in the dry centres of most continental landmasses. If you compare Figure 17.2 with the major biogeographic regions of species distribution (Figure 18.1) you will see a very different pattern. In this case the terrestrial regions are associated with landmasses such as major continents, not with climatic zones. Sometimes species have a wide distribution and occur in many biogeographical regions: an example is the bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) described in Section 3.2. More often, a genus is widespread, but within each region different species occur, for example the oaks: Quercus robur, Q. petraea and Q. ilex in the palaearctic, Q. borealis, Q.
eBook - PDF- Marina Silva-Opps(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- IntechOpen(Publisher)
Section 1 Biogeography, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Chapter 1 Areas of Endemism: Methodological and Applied Biogeographic Contributions from South America Dra Dolores Casagranda and Dra Mercedes Lizarralde de Grosso Additional information is available at the end of the chapter http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/55482 1. Introduction The geographic distribution of organisms is the subject of Biogeography, a field of biology that naturalists have carried out for over two centuries [1-6]. From the observation of animal and plant distribution, diverse questions emerge; the description of diversity gradients; delimita‐ tion of areas of endemism; identification of ancestral areas and search of relationships among areas, among others, have become major issues to be analyzed, worked out and solved. In this way, Biogeography has turned into a multi-layered discipline with both theoretical and analytical frameworks and far-reaching objectives. However, at the beginning it was closely related to systematics. Taxonomists were the ones who took a keen interest in the geographical distribution of taxa. In other words, because the connection is so close, several analytical tools applied to the treatment of biogeographical problems are adaptations or modifications from methods oriented to solve systematics questions. This apparent panacea may also represent one important analytical obstacle for Biogeography. Although some biogeographical questions require systematic information to be solved, the object of study of Biogeography, that is, spatial distribution of taxa, as well as its concepts and problems, are different from those of systematics. Hence, methods taken from systematics are not appropriate for the treatment of biogeographical problems. The need for its own methods and its own analytical framework have promoted prolific theoretical discussions and methodological developments throughout the last 20 years.
eBook - ePubInsect Ecology
An Ecosystem Approach
- Timothy D. Schowalter(Author)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
7 BiogeographyI. Geographic Distribution A. Global Patterns B. Regional Patterns C. Island Biogeography D. Landscape and Stream Continuum Patterns II. Spatial Dynamics of Populations A. Expanding Populations B. Metapopulation Dynamics III. Anthropogenic Effects on Spatial Dynamics A. Fragmentation B. Disturbances to Aquatic Ecosystems C. Species Introductions IV. Conservation Biology V. Models of Spatial Dynamics VI. SummaryGEOGRAPHIC RANGES OF SPECIES OCCURRENCE GENERALLY REFLECT THE tolerances of individual organisms to geographic gradients in physical conditions (see Chapter 2 ). However, most species do not occupy the entire area of potentially suitable environmental conditions. Discontinuity in geographic range reflects a number of factors, particularly geographic barriers and disturbance dynamics. By contrast, suitable habitats can be colonized over large distances from population sources, as a result of dispersal processes, often aided by anthropogenic movement. Factors determining the geographic distribution of organisms have been a particular subject of investigation for the past several centuries (e.g., Andrewartha and Birch 1954 , Price 1997 ), spurred in large part by European and American exploration and floral and faunal collections in continental interiors during the 1800s.The spatial distribution of populations changes with population size. Growing populations expand over a larger area as individuals in the high-density core disperse to the fringe of the population or colonize new patches. Declining populations shrink into refuges that maintain isolated demes of a metapopulation. Spatial distribution of populations is influenced to a considerable extent by anthropogenic activities that determine landscape structure and introduce (intentionally or unintentionally) commercial and “pest” species to new regions. Changes in insect presence or abundance may be useful biological indicators of ecosystem conditions across landscapes or regions, depending on the degree of habitat specialization of particular species (Rykken et al
eBook - PDFPalaeobiogeography of Marine Fossil Invertebrates
Concepts and Methods
- Fabrizio Cecca(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
Some ideas of processes are discussed here while others (dispersion, barriers) are treated in other parts of this book. Geoecology consists of (1) the behavioural and ecophysiological processes by which a taxon maintains its geographic range and (2) the environmental factors that favour its presence within its range, with feedback relationships between the two. Ecophysiology acquires a geographic dimension only when related to the geographical limits of a taxon’s environmental tolerances. Environmental processes operate from microhabitat to global scale and there is no evident limit between which ecological factors can also be called geographical (Blondel, 1979; Rosen, 1988a); they are relevant in Biogeography when they operate at the larger scales. The term ‘geoecology’ refers therefore to the geographical scale of ecology which is useful to distinguish from the ecological processes themselves when applying fossil distributions to palaeogeographic reconstructions. Geoecological assemblages contain a fossil signature of the biotic response to environmental factors and may be used in palaeogeography. 2.2.2 Distributional change The most important processes are listed in Table 2.2 according to Rosen (1988a). Some of them are discussed in other sections of this book.
eBook - PDF- Malte C. Ebach, Raymond S. Tangney(Authors)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
161 7 Phylogeography in Historical Biogeography: Investigating the Biogeographic Histories of Populations, Species, and Young Biotas Brett R. Riddle and David J. Hafner ABSTRACT Over the past two decades, phylogeography has become an increasingly popular approach to investigating the geography of genetic variation within and among populations, species, and groups of closely related species. Phylogeographic research is uniquely positioned between historical and ecological Biogeography, but to date has not incorporated many of the fundamental concepts of the former and, therefore, is susceptible to criticism that it is not a legitimate method in area-based historical Biogeography. Here, we review the similarities and differences between phylogeog- raphy and area-based historical Biogeography; and review concerns regarding the differences. We then summarize one recent approach to reconciling differences that highlights the synergistic and reciprocal strengths of each approach at different stages in the analysis of historical structure within populations, species, and young biotas. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the number and variety of new approaches and methods in historical Biogeography has grown steadily (summarized by Crisci et al., 2003; see also table 12.2 in Lomolino et al., 2006), but not without debate over the utility and validity of many of them (e.g., Brooks et al., 2001, 2004; Ebach, 2001; Van Veller & Brooks, 2001; Ebach & Humphries, 2002, 2003; Siddall & Perkins, 2003; Van Veller et al., 2003; Siddall, 2005). Much of this recent diversification of historical Biogeography can be attributed to a desire to explore aspects of biotic histories that were not considered tractable under the original form of vicariance (or cladistic ) Biogeography 8038_C007.fm Page 161 Thursday, August 10, 2006 3:27 PM 162 Biogeography in a Changing World that emerged in the 1970s (e.g., Nelson, 1974; Crisci et al., 2003).
eBook - PDFArguing for Evolution
An Encyclopedia for Understanding Science
- Sehoya H. Cotner, Randy Moore(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Greenwood(Publisher)
Moreover, more than 160 of these species live only in Luehea trees. Some animals are stunningly abundant—for example, there are more than a million billion ants on Earth. However, other species are endangered, and still others are disappearing. Famed American biologist E. O. Wilson estimates that rainforests alone lose 6,000 species per year (approximately 17 species per day), despite the fact that these biomes cover only 6% of Earth’s land. Biogeography Biogeography, which was recognized as a new discipline in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel, documents and interprets how Earth’s organisms are dis- tributed. 1 It addresses a variety of questions: How many species are there? Why are some species more abundant than others? For example, why are there more species of insects than all other species of animals combined? Where do these species live? Why do certain plants and animals live in some places and not others? Why are organisms distributed this way? Have organisms always been distributed this way? Why do large, isolated regions have such distinctive inhabitants com- pared to those of continents? For example, why are nearly all of Aus- tralia’s native mammals marsupials, but placental mammals dominate the rest of the world? Why aren’t there any polar bears in Antarctica? Why aren’t there any giraffes in Hawaii? What accounts for these distributions? 1. At the time, Haeckel referred to Biogeography as chorology. Biogeography 81 Some principles of Biogeography are obvious to us now. For example, asked why there are no giraffes in Hawaii, most people would answer that giraffes could not get to Hawaii. This simple answer presumes that giraffes originated elsewhere (i.e., on a continent and not on oceanic islands such as Hawaii). This may seem obvious now, but this was not always the case. Indeed, before we had an understanding of evolution, special creation was a commonly accepted idea, and an omnipotent Creator could presumably have created or placed species anywhere.
eBook - PDFBiogeography
Introduction to Space, Time, and Life
- Glen MacDonald(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
In summary, we can say that the high biodiversity of the tropics has defied one single simple explanation and is more realistically the product of many historical and equilibrium factors. ISLAND Biogeography Islands have always held a special attraction to biogeographers.The fascination with islands extends back to the foundations of the discipline. Darwin’s ideas regarding evolution were very strongly influenced by the biological diversity of the finch species that he observed on different islands of the Galapagos Archipelago. So, too, was Wallace influenced by the similarities and differences in bird species and other organisms that he observed on the islands of the Malaysian Archipelago. Islands have been very important in many subsequent studies of the role of geography in evolution. Examples that we have already discussed in this book include the work of Mayr on kingfisher species on New Guinea and surrounding islands, and the many studies of fruit flies, honeycreepers, and plant species on the Hawaiian Islands. Many biogeographers have focused on intriguing biological attributes and phenomena that are characteristic of island organisms and ecosystems. In 1880,Wal- lace published a classic book on this topic called Island Life. In 1965, Sherwin Car- lquist published an updated synthesis of island biology that was also entitled Island Life. From these writings we can identify a suite of characteristics that are often found in insular species of plants and animals and distinguish them from mainland ancestors and relatives. Such features include the loss of dispersability, the develop- ment of gigantism or dwarfism, the loss of antipredator defensive features and behaviors, the development of woody shrubs and trees from species that occur as soft-stemmed herbs on continents, and the development of highly specialized niches. The study of species richness on islands has had a long and important history in Biogeography.
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