Biogeography

C. Barry Cox was formerly Head of Biological Sciences, King's College, London, UK. Richard J. Ladle is Titular Professor of Conservation Biogeography at the Federal University of Alagoas on the north-east 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. Peter 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 Nature.

• Preface xiiiAcknowledgements xv1 Introduction 1Lessons from the Past 1Ecological versus Historical Biogeography, and Plants versus Animals 4Biogeography and Creation 5The Distribution of Life Today 7Evolution – a Flawed and Dangerous Idea! 8Enter Darwin – and Wallace 10World Maps – the Biogeographical Regions of Plants and Animals 13Getting Around the World 15The Origins of Modern Historical Biogeography 20The Development of Ecological Biogeography 23Living Together 24Marine Biogeography 27Island Biogeography 28Biogeography Today 30Section I: The Challenge of Existing 372 Patterns of Distribution: Finding a Home 39Limits of Distribution 42The Niche 44Overcoming the Barriers 45Climatic Limits: The Palms 46A Successful Family: The Daisies (Asteraceae) 48Patterns Among Plovers 51Magnolias: Evolutionary Relicts 55The Strange Case of the Testate Amoeba 57Climatic Relicts 58Topographical Limits and Endemism 65Physical Limits 67Species Interactions: A Case of the Blues 73Competition 75Reducing Competition 76Predators and Prey, Parasites and Hosts 79Migration 83Invasion 853 Communities and Ecosystems: Living Together 97The Community 97The Ecosystem 100Ecosystems and Species Diversity 103Biotic Assemblages on a Global Scale 108Mountain Biomes 112Global Patterns of Climate 116Climate Diagrams 119Modelling Biomes and Climate 1224 Patterns of Biodiversity 127Measuring Biodiversity: How Many Species are There? 128Latitudinal Gradients of Diversity 132Is Evolution Faster in the Tropics? 139The Legacy of Glaciation 141Latitude and Species Ranges 142Diversity and Altitude 143Biodiversity Hotspots 146Diversity in Space and Time 148The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis 151Dynamic Biodiversity and Neutral Theory 151Section II: The Engines of The Planet 1575 Plate Tectonics 159The Evidence for Plate Tectonics 159Changing Patterns of Continents 164How Plate Tectonics Changes the World 164Islands and Plate Tectonics 172Terranes 1746 Evolution, the Source of Novelty 179The Origin of Novelty 179From Populations to Species 180Sympatry versus Allopatry 183Defining the Species 188Microevolution versus Macroevolution 189Adaptive Radiations 189Naming and Cataloguing the Living World 189Charting the Course of Evolution 190Morphology Gives Way to Molecules 193Darwin’s Finches Updated 194Section III: Islands and Oceans 1977 Life, Death and Evolution on Islands 199Types of Island 200Getting There: The Challenges of Arriving 200Dying There: The Problems of Survival 202Adapting and Evolving 203The Hawaiian Islands 206Integrating the Data: The Theory of Island Biogeography 214Modifying the Theory 216The General Dynamic Model for Oceanic Island Biogeography 219Nestedness 221Living Together: Incidence and Assembly Rules 221Building an Ecosystem: The History of Rakata 2238 Patterns in the Oceans 235Zones in the Ocean and on the Sea Floor 237Basic Biogeography of the Seas 240The Open‐Sea Environment 240The Ocean Floor 246The Shallow‐Sea Environment 250And Finally … Marine Biogeographical Realms of the World 263Section IV: Historical Biogeography 2699 From Evolution to Patterns of Life 271Studying the Patterns 272Methods of Analyzing the Patterns 273Studying Organisms and their Molecules 287An Integrative Approach to Historical Biogeography 290Investigating the More Distant Past 29210 Geography, Life and Climates Through Time 299Introduction 299Early Land Life on the Moving Continents 300Animal Life Through the Mesozoic 304The End of the Mesozoic World 308Climates and Plants Through Time 309Reconstructing Plant Life and Biomes 310Evolution of the Mammals 318The Mesozoic Roots of the Radiation of Modern Mammals 32011 Patterns of Life Today 327The Biogeographical Regions Today 327The History of Today’s Biogeographical Regions 334The Old World Tropics: Africa, India and Southeast Asia 334Australia 342New Caledonia 345New Zealand 346The West Indies 348South America 351The Northern Hemisphere: Holarctic Mammals and Boreal Plants 35912 The Arrival of the Ice Ages 367Climatic Wiggles 368Interglacials and Interstadials 369Biological Changes in the Pleistocene 371The Last Glacial 375Causes of Glaciation 382The Current Interglacial: A False Start 388Forests on the Move 390The Dry Lands 393Changing Sea Levels 396A Time of Warmth 398Climatic Cooling 399Recorded History 400Atmosphere and Oceans: Short‐Term Climate Change 402The Future 403Section V: People and Problems 40913 The Human Intrusion 411The Emergence of Humans 411Modern Humans and the Megafaunal Extinctions 420Plant Domestication and Agriculture 423Animal Domestication 428The Diversification of Homo sapiens 430The Biogeography of Human Parasitic Diseases 431The Environmental Impact of Early Human Cultures 43414 Conservation Biogeography 439Welcome to the Anthropocene 439The Sixth Mass Extinction? 440Less, and Less Interesting 444What’s Behind the Biodiversity Crisis? 445Crisis Management: Responding to Biodiversity Loss 451The Birth of Conservation Biogeography 452The Scope of Conservation Biogeography 453Conservation Biogeography in Action 459The Future is Digital 462Conclusions 463Glossary 471Index 481Colour plates between pages 240 and 241