Chapter 18: Biogeography Flashcards
What are important regulators of species distributions at local scales?
physical factors and species interactions
What are global and regional scale processes important for?
determining the distributions and diversity of species on Earth
Biogeography
study of variation in species composition and diversity across geographic locations
What did the biogeographical forest tour reveal about species richness and composition?
It showed that they varied
-With latitude: low latitudes have more and different species than higher latitudes
-From continent to continent, even where longitude and latitude are similar
-Within the same biome type, depending on its location on Earth
Global Scale
the entire world
How does the global scale affect species?
species have been isolated from one another, on different continents or in different oceans, by long distances and over long periods
-Rates of speciation, extinction. and dispersal help determine differences in species diversity and composition
Regional Scale
areas with uniform climate; species are tied to that region by dispersal limitations
Regional Species Pool
all species contained within a region (gamma diversity)
Landscape Scale
determined by topographic and environmental features
Why does species composition and diversity vary within a region?
depending on how the landscape shapes rates of migration and extinction
Local Scale
equivalent to a community
Alpha Diversity
species physiology and interactions with other species are important factors in the resulting species diversity
Beta Diversity
change in species. or turnover, from one community type to another; connects local and regional scales
How is area determined?
-actual area of spatial scales depends on the species and communities of interest
-area used to define species diversity measurements can be critical to interpreting the processes controlling biogeographic patterns
What does the regional species pool provide for the local scale?
provides raw material for local assemblages and sets the theoretical upper limit on species diversity for communities
-the relative influence of regional and local processes can be determined by plotting local versus regional species richness
If regional and local species diversity are equal…
-slope= 1
-all species in a region will be found in all communities
-This is not very likely as regions will always have features that exclude some species from some communities
If local richness is proportional to regional richness….
community richness is mostly determined by the regional species pool
If local richness levels are off…
local processes can be assumed to limit local species diversity
Witman et. al (2004)
looked at invertebrate communities on subtidal rock walls at 49 sites in 12 regions around the world
-local species richness was always lower than regional species richness
-regional species richness explained 75% of the variation in local species richness
Alfred Russel Wallace
father of biogeography
-co discovered of the principles of natural selection
-main contribution was the study of species distributions across large spatial scales
What did Wallace publish in The Geographical Distribution of Animals in 1876?
-He overlaid species distributions on top of geographic regions and revealed two global patterns
-1. The land masses can be divided into six biogeographic regions, which correspond roughly to Earth’s major tectonic plates