Biogeography

Barry Cox formerly King's College, London, UKPeter D. Moore is Emeritus Reader in Ecology at King's College London. He has written extensively on ecology and global environmental change and was, for 35 years, Ecology Correspondent for the journal NatureRichard Ladle is Titular Professor of Conservation Biogeography at the Federal University of Alagoas on the northeast coast of Brazil. He is also a Senior research associate at the School of Geography in Oxford University, as well as the director of Tamandua Environmental Consultants

• Preface xiAcknowledgements xiii1 The History of Biogeography 1Lessons from the Past 1Ecological versus Historical Biogeography, and Plants versus Animals 3Biogeography and Creation 4The Distribution of Life Today 5Evolution – a Flawed and Dangerous Idea! 7Enter Darwin – and Wallace 8World Maps: Biogeographical Regions of Plants and Animals 10Getting around the World 12The Origins of Modern Historical Biogeography 16The Development of Ecological Biogeography 19Living Together 20Marine Biogeography 23Island Biogeography 24Biogeography Today 26SECTION I: THE CHALLENGE OF EXISTING 312 Patterns of Distribution: Finding a Home 33Limits of Distribution 37 The Niche 38Overcoming the Barriers 39Climatic Limits: The Palms 41A Successful Family: The Daisies (Asteraceae) 42Patterns among Plovers 46Magnolias: Evolutionary Relicts 49The Strange Case of the Testate Amoeba 50Climatic Relicts 52Topographical Limits and Endemism 59Physical Limits 60Species Interaction: A Case of the Blues 66Competition 69Reducing Competition 71Predators and Prey, Parasites and Hosts 73Migration 76Invasion 793 Communities and Ecosystems: Living Together 89The Community 89The Ecosystem 92Ecosystems and Species Diversity 95Biotic Assemblages on a Global Scale 98Mountain Biomes 103Global Patterns of Climate 106Climate Diagrams 109Modelling Biomes and Climate 1124 Patterns of Biodiversity 117How Many Species are There? 118Latitudinal Gradients of Diversity 123Is Evolution Faster in the Tropics? 131The Legacy of Glaciation 132Latitude and Species Ranges 133Diversity and Altitude 134Biodiversity Hotspots 136Diversity in Space and Time 139Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis 141Dynamic Biodiversity and Neutral Theory 142SECTION II: THE ENGINES OF THE PLANET 1475 Plate Tectonics 149The Evidence for Plate Tectonics 149Changing Patterns of Continents 154How Plate Tectonics affects the Living World, Part I: Events on Land 154How Plate Tectonics affects the Living World, Part II: Events in the Oceans 156Islands and Plate Tectonics 162 Terranes 1646 Evolution, the Source of Novelty 169The Mechanism of Evolution: The Genetic System 172From Populations to Species 173Sympatry versus Allopatry 176Defining the Species 179A Case Study: Darwin’s Finches 180Controversies and Evolution 183Charting the Course of Evolution 188SECTION III: ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY 1937 Life, Death and Evolution on Islands 195Types of Island 196Getting There: The Challenges of Arriving 196Dying There: Problems of Survival 197Adapting and Evolving 199The Hawaiian Islands 201Integrating the Data: The Theory of Island Biogeography 208Modifying the Theory 212The General Dynamic Model for Oceanic Island Biogeography 214Nestedness 216Living Together: Incidence and Assembly Rules 216Building an Ecosystem: The History of Rakata 218SECTION IV: PATTERNS OF LIFE 2298 From Evolution to Patterns of Life 231Dispersal, Vicariance and Endemism 231Methods of Analysis 232Event‐Based Biogeography 236Reticulate Patterns 239The Molecular Approach to Historical Biogeography 245Molecules and the More Distant Past 2509 Patterns in the Oceans 255Zones in the Ocean and on the Seafloor 257Basic Biogeography of the Seas 260The Open‐Sea Environment 261The Ocean Floor 268The Shallow‐Sea Environment 27310 Patterns in the Past 291Early Land Life on the Moving Continents 292One World – for a While 295Biogeography of the Earliest Mammals 298Early History of the Flowering Plants 303Reconstructing Early Biomes 30511 Setting the Scene for Today 315The Biogeographical Regions Today 315The Basis of Mammal Biogeography 317Patterns of Distribution Today, I: The Mammals 319Patterns of Distribution Today, II: The Flowering Plants 322History of Today’s Biogeographical Regions 323The Old World Tropics: Africa, India and South‐East Asia 324Australia 331New Caledonia 334New Zealand 335The West Indies 336South America 341The Northern Hemisphere: Holarctic Mammals and Boreal Plants 34612 Ice and Change 353Climatic Wiggles 354Interglacials and Interstadials 356Biological Changes in the Pleistocene 358The Last Glacial 361Causes of Glaciation 370The Current Interglacial: A False Start 375Forests on the Move 377The Dry Lands 381Changing Sea Levels 383A Time of Warmth 384Climatic Cooling 386Recorded History 388Atmosphere and Oceans: Short‐Term Climate Change 388The Future 390SECTION V: PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS 39713 The Human Intrusion 399The Emergence of Humans 399Modern Humans and the Megafaunal Extinctions 406Plant Domestication and Agriculture 409Animal Domestication 414Diversification of Homo sapiens 415The Biogeography of Human Parasitic Diseases 417Environmental Impact of Early Human Cultures 42014 Conservation Biogeography 425Welcome to the Anthropocene 425Less, and Less Interesting 429What is behind the Biodiversity Crisis? 430Crisis Management: Responding to Biodiversity Loss 435The Birth of Conservation Biogeography 437The Scope of Conservation Biogeography 438Conservation Biogeography in Action 443The Future is Digital 446Conclusions 449Glossary 455Index 469Colour plates between pages 146 and 147