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Biol 335 > Biogeography 1: Introduction, Patterns, Processes > Flashcards

Biogeography 1: Introduction, Patterns, Processes Flashcards

1
Q

Biogeography definition

A

The study of the geographical distributions of organisms and of
the physical and biological processes that produced them.

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2
Q

Historical biogeography

A

the distributions as affected by
geological processes, evolution, and extinction

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3
Q

Ecological biogeography

A

distributions as affected by the
environment, including competition and predation, over
10’s, 100’s or (at most) 1000’s of years

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4
Q

Biota definition

A

the flora (plants) plus fauna (animals) of a region

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5
Q

Range definition

A

the geographic distribution of a taxon

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6
Q

Cosmopolitan definition

A

found worldwide or nearly so, in appropriate habitats

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7
Q

Endemic definition

A

restricted to a single region

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8
Q

What biogeographic observations did Darwin have

A
  • unique South American
    living and fossil mammals
    and birds
  • Galapagos fauna related
    to that of South America
  • endemic taxa of Australia
    and New Zealand
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9
Q

Describe Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911)

A
  • Erebus ship
  • He is considered the father of plant
    biogeography; was chief curator at
    Kew Gardens for 20 years.
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10
Q

Describe Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)and Wallace’s line

A
  • Co-discoverer of natural selection.
  • He is considered the father of animal
    biogeography
  • Defined Wallace’s line: a boundary between
    two biogeographical regions.
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11
Q

describe Philip Lutley Sclater (1829-1913)

A
  • Ornithologist who specialized in the study of
    speciation and zoogeography
  • In 1858, he produced a biogeographical division of
    the World based on species distributions of birds.
  • The regions were named Nearctica, Neotropica,
    Aethiopica, Palearctica, Australiana, and Indica,
    and are almost identical to those recognized today
  • Theory of Lemuria, hypothetical landmass in Indian Ocean to explain
    similarities between bird faunas of Madagascar and India.
  • Founded the ornithological journal The Ibis.
  • Sclater also divided the oceans according to
    distributions of marine organisms, mainly mammals
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12
Q

What is the implication from convergent species

A

that there is evolution in isolation

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13
Q

Examples of convergent species

A
  • placental and marsupial flying squirrels
  • grey wolf and Tasmanian wolf
  • anteaters
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14
Q

Is there latitudinal gradients in diversity

A

yes, there is more diversity as you go towards the equator

–> the patterns recognized in modern biogeographic regions are very similar to Sclater’s regions

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15
Q

Describe the dividing lines between the Nearctic and Neotropical regions and between Palearctic and Ethiopian regions

A

the dividing lines are deserts, deserts also partly separate the oriental and palearctic regions

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16
Q

In biogeographic evidence what define biotas

A

There are distinctive biotas of the regions, endemic species define biotas - they also give a sense of place and belonging to the people who live in these regions

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17
Q

Describe the Nearctic

A
  • Is North America + Greenland south to cent4ral Mexico
  • there are 2 endemic mammal families:
    –>Antilocapridae - monotypic family
    –> Aplodontidae
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18
Q

Describe the palearctic

A
  • Europe, northern Asia, Arabian peninsula, northern Africa
  • 0 mammalian families are endemic
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19
Q

Describe the neotropical region

A
  • Central and south America, Caribbean islands
  • 19 mammal families are endemic
    –> Xenarthra
    –> New world monkeys
    –> Marsupial order Microbiotheria
  • Caviomorph rodents
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20
Q

Describe the Ethiopian

A
  • Africa south of the sahara, Madagascar
  • 18 mammal families are endemic
  • Afrotherians - a clade based on molecular systematics now largely confined to Africa and neighboring regions
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21
Q

Describe the oriental region

A
  • india, SE asia, indonesia, malayan archipelgo
  • 4 mammal families are endemic
  • the dividing line with the palearctic region is a mountain range and desert
    –> Pholidota: pangolins
    –> Spiny dormouse
    –> Dermoptera: flying lemurs
22
Q

Describe Australian

A
  • Australia, new zealand, new guinea, smaller islands
  • 17 endemic mammals
23
Q

What is the australian island subregion

A

New Zealand - Islands such as New Zealand and Madagascar have
distinctive biotas related to those in nearby regions

24
Q

What is the ethiopian island subregion

A

Madagascar biota:
extends to nearby islands
(Comoros and Mauritius)
related to Ethiopian biota
many endemic bats, birds, mammals, and plants

25
Q

Rank the distinctiveness of biotas from most distinctive to least

A

Australian - Neotropical - Ethiopian - Oriental - Nearctic - Palearctic

–> The Nearctic and Palearctic regions are
the least distinctive because their native
species have been very successful at
dispersing to other regions.
–> Classical ideas considered that their
large land areas and intercontinental
connections had fostered more
competition and led to greater adaptive
fitness of their species.

26
Q

Describe the Holarctic region

A

Nearctic + Palearctic

27
Q

Describe the Gondwanan region

A

Combination of Neotropical + Ethiopian +
Australian + Antarctica + Indian Peninsula

28
Q

Describe Pantropical or Circumtropical regions

A

Equatorial regions around the
globe but not in cool temperate or polar regions.

29
Q

Describe Amphitropical or Antitropical regions

A

high latitudes of both Northern
and Southern Hemisphere, but not the tropics.

30
Q

What are the general patterns observed when it comes to biogeography

A
  • varying degrees of endemism of biogeographic regions
  • variation in biodiversity of regions (e.g. extreme diversity in the oriental region, amazonia, tropical oceans)
  • similarity of biota among the parts of gondwana and holarctica
31
Q

How might the patterns in biogeography be explained

A
  1. chance dispersal (long distance sweepstakes and filter routes, disperesal from areas of high diversity toward peripheral regions)
  2. land bridges (South atlantic north atlantic; beringia, madagascar - africa and india (sclaters lemuria), panamanian isthmus (still exists)
  3. moving continents - alfred wegeners theory of continental drift
32
Q

In island biogeography, at equilibrium, species richness is a function of what two things,and the number of species is a function of what two things

A
  1. island size
  2. distance from mainland

–> the number of species on an island is an equilibrium between immigration and extinction

33
Q

What has more species on the island - a small island or a large island

A

and large island

34
Q

What has more species, near island or far island

A

near island

35
Q

Eduard Suess (1885):

A

land bridges, now submerged, connected parts of his ‘Gondwana’
;
he also hypothesized the Tethys Sea,
global sea level rise and fall, the biosphere, etc.

36
Q

Antonio Snider-Pelligrini (1858)

A

identical fossil plants in South America and Africa

37
Q

Alfred Wegener

A

– Intrigued by close fit of coastlines of e.g., North America and Europe, South
America and Africa
– Published his theory:
– 1912 book “Die Entstehung der Kontinente” (The Origin of Continents)
– 1915 theory “Kontinentalverschiebung” (Continental Drift)
– Born 1880 and died prematurely on an expedition in Greenland in 1930; his
theory languished without its defender and without a plausible mechanism –> theory of continental drift

38
Q

What is continental drift explained by

A

plate tectonics

  • earth’s crust divided into plates
  • plates move relative to one another
  • plate movements cause continents to move also
  • continents don’t ‘drift’ but they do move, as Wegener proposed
  • continents tend to hold their shape
39
Q

Describe the age of the ocean floor

A

Nowhere older than the Jurassic. some sections move faster than others

40
Q

Describe magnetic striping of sea floor

A

happens on either side of spreading ridges, stripes result from reversals of earth’s magnetic field

41
Q

Hot spots and oceanic islands

A
  • plate moves over magma
    source called ‘hot spot’
  • volcanic island forms
  • plate continues to move
  • volcano becomes extinct
    as island no longer over
    hot spot
  • new volcanic island forms
  • youngest islands at one
    end of chain, oldest at
    other end
42
Q

Hot spots and oceanic islands

A
  • plate moves over magma
    source called ‘hot spot’
  • volcanic island forms
  • plate continues to move
  • volcano becomes extinct
    as island no longer over
    hot spot
  • new volcanic island forms
  • youngest islands at one
    end of chain, oldest at
    other end
43
Q

Describe Pangea

A

Pangea supercontinent assembled about 335 million years ago (Ma),
surrounded by Panthalassa super ocean, began to break up about
175 Ma into Gondwana and Laurasia, separated by Tethys Sea
(concept proposed Suess and championed by Alfred Wegener)

44
Q

Describe the breakup of Gondwana

A

200 Ma - Pangaea
160 Ma – Madagascar+India separate from Africa;
Orient attaches to Asia
100 Ma (Cretaceous) – isolation of Africa; Atlantic begins to form
80 Ma (Cretaceous) – Madagascar separates from India
50 Ma (Eocene) – separation of S. America from Australia (via Antarctica);
separation of N. America from Asia; collision of India with Asia
0 Ma (present) – Australia approaches Southeast Asia at Wallace’s line;
South America and North America joined by Panama ~ 3Ma

45
Q

Pleistocene Glaciations

A
  • Pleistocene glaciations were proposed by Louis Agassiz
  • Pleistocene epoch lasted ~ 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago
    Holocene epoch began 11.7 K years ago, continuing today
46
Q

Effects of Pleistocene Glaciations

A
  • Lower sea levels → Land bridges
  • Restriction of species to fragments of their ranges → glacial refugia.
  • Passageways between melting glaciers → corridors.
  • Land bridges, refugia and corridors have shaped species
    distributions in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
47
Q

Bering land bridge and refugium

A
  • existed off and on for at
    least 60 million years
  • was a vast tundra covered plain during ice age - minimum sea levels
48
Q

Global Sea level lowering during late Pleistocene

A
  • Sea level lowering allowed dispersal of species across Southeast Asia
    • a few species crossed
      Wallace’s line
      between Bali and
      Lombok and between
      Borneo and Sulawesi
      (including humans)

dispersal
* among present-day
islands that were
connected during iceage sea-level

49
Q

Sand dune expansion during

A

late Pleistocene

50
Q

Describe the theory of Lemuria

A

Sclater’s theory - hypothetical land mass in the Indian Ocean to explain similarities between bird faunas of Madagascar and India

51
Q

What theory is this: hypothetical land mass in the Indian Ocean to explain similarities between bird faunas of Madagascar and India

A

Sclater’s theory - theory of Lemuria

52
Q
A

Biol 335 (21 decks)

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