Biogeog Lecture 1, 2 & 3 Flashcards
Out of the estimated 5-50 million species of plants, animals and microbes on the earth, how many have been described by scientists?
less than 2 million
Estimates of total biodiversity is uncertain because?
- Very few experts
- Difficulty in defining what exactly a specie is
…… refers to all variety of organisms.
biodiversity
Which two concepts place the discipline in a geographical context?
Temporal and spatial
What is biogeography?
It is the study of geographic distribution of plants and animals both living and fossil as a result of ecological and evolutionary processes.
Biogeography applies knowledge from several fields of study to explain its subject matter. What does this mean?
it is a synthetic science
Plant biogeography is also called?
phytogeography
Animal biogeography is also called ….
zoogeography
What’s the third systematic of geography that have been mentioned ?
Microbial biogeography
Scientists studying ancient ecosystems and their interactions organisms and their environment in the past is called ?
paleoecology
Why study biogeography?
To understand differences in spatial distribution of life and to provide logical explanations
A group of species is
taxa
Between plant and animal biogeography, which has gained more attention and is studies more by scientists ?
plant biogeography
…………… states rage the survival of an organism is determined by it’s required environmental factor which occurs in minimum quantity.
Liebig’s law of minimum
………….. states that there are limits of a required environmental factor for each organism.
Shelford’s law of tolerance