Biogeography: Lecture 23-25

Question 1

What is biogeography?

Answer 1

Biogeography is the study of the geographical of organisms both past and present (Biogeography is the science that seeks to explain spatial patterns in biota)

Question 2

How might biogeography be used for contemporary environmental issues and management?

Question 3

Describe population growth and why the human population changed (and how it might change in the future)

Answer 3

• The world’s population is big and increasing (although not exponentially and growth is slowing)
• The increased growth in the human population is the result of the expansion of resources and the reduction of death rates
• Growth in human population slows with increasing (female) education
• As populations grow, the demand for food, water, and energy increases, potentially leading to resource shortages and environmental degradation

Question 4

Describe species area relationships

Answer 4

Species area curves is that if you start graphing species richness (the number of species per unit area) versus area. Then it’s almost always linear (almost acts as a law in ecology)

Question 5

When did modern humans spread around the world?

Answer 5

• Molecular evidence suggests that modern humans (H. sapiens sapiens) arose from one population at around 200,000 y ago;
• the timing for the colonisation of some major continents is still debated;
• by 10,000 y bp modern humans had colonised all continents (except Antarctica)

Question 6

Why was European exploration important?

Answer 6

The expansion of European colonialism was also an important stage. It had huge environmental consequences including:
* biotic exchanges; (biotic exchanges refer to the large-scale transfer of plants, animals, and microorganisms between Europe (and the Old World in general) and the newly encountered lands of the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania (the New World))
* the demise of indigenous populations