Biogeography

Johann Reinhold Forster

(1729-1798) 1. presented early world views of biotic regions; 2. relationship between regional flora and environmental condition; 3. Animals correspond to plants ; 4. island size correlates with diversity

Karl Ludwig Willdenow

(1765-1812) German botanist 1. 1792 major synthesis of plant geography; 2. creation had many points of origin

Alexander von Humboldt

(1769-1859) German 1. father of phytogeography 2. conceived \floristic belts\ 3. focused on climate and plants. 4. 1805 essay - vertical gradients resemble latitudinal 5. invented isobar and isotherm

Charles Lyle

(1797-1875) 1. father of geology 2. 1830 Principles of Geology 3. confirmed dynamic land and climate through fossils sea level change 4. several sites AND periods of creation 5. theory of uniformitarianism 6. extensionist

Adolphe Brongniart

(1801-1876) father of paleobotany confirmed dynamic land and climate through fossils

Louis Agassiz

(1807-1873) 1. Swiss paleontologist and systematist 2. species immutable and static 3. Develop first comprehensive theory of the \ice age\ and it's influence biogeography

Edward Forbes

(1815-1854) Produced the first comprehensive work on marine biogeography Marine organisms are influenced by climate water chemistry anf depth

E.W. Hilgard

1860 demonstrated back limited factors in plants are directly responsible for converting parent rock into different kinds of soil varying in pH mineral composition texture and so forth

Ernst Häckel

1866 introduced concept of ecology called for recognition of biogeography as field

Carolus Linnaeus

1778 all sp. from 1 \pardisical mountain\ near equator

Charles Darwin

1831 H.M.S. Beagle 1. natural selection accounts for much diversity 2. emphasized long-distance dispersal instead of land bridges

C. Raunkiaer

1934 defined major types of plants based on the position of their perennating tissues

Wallace s biogeographic principles

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phylogenies

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Persistent themes in biogeography

1 classifying geographic regions based on there biotas 2. Reconstructed the historical development of lineage and biotas including their origin spread and diversification 3. Explaining differences in numbers and types of species among/along geographic areas/gradients 4. Explaining geographic variation of closely related species

four British scientists

1. Charles Darwin 2. Joseph Dalton Hooker 3. Philip Lutley Sclater 4. Alfred Russell Wallace

3 nineteenth century developments biogeography

1. a better estimate of the age of the earth 2. a better understanding of the dynamic nature of the continents and oceans 3. a better understanding of the mechanism involved in this spread and diversification of species

Joseph Dalton Hooker

1. ambitious plant collector 2. emphasized study of insular biotas to understand biogeographic patterns; 3. extensionist

Augustin P. de Candolle

1. app. first to claim competition importance 2. subdivided biotic provinces into stations 3. island diversity depends on history isolation

Philip Lutley Sclater

1. eminent ornithologist 2. described 1066 sp of birds 3. 1857 read paper on distribution of aves 4. formed basis of the six major biogeographic regions nearctic...

Alfred Russell Wallace

1. father of zoogeography 3. life work focused on biogeography 3. three major works on biogeography

Factors contribute to the emergence of biogeography

1. transition to theoritcal focus 2. advances in other sciences and technologies; 3. need to address global anthropogenic change

Georges-Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon

1707-1788 1. post flood disperser from northern Europe 2. land and climate were dynamic 3. species improved or degenerated 4. buffon's law

Number of species on earth

5 and 50 million

Allen's Rule

Among warm blooded species lands end other extremities are shorter and more compact in individuals living in colder climates

Bergmann's rule

And warm blooded vertebrate races from cooler climate tend to have large your body sizes and hence to have smaller surface to volume ratios then the same species in warmer climate

simberloff and Wilson

Classic experiment of manipulating tiny island 1969

buffon's law

Environmentally similar but isolated regions have distinct assemblages of mammals and birds

Cope's rule

Evolution of a group shows a trend toword increased body size

deductive reasoning

From general constructs to specific cases

Alfred Wegener

German meteorologist 1912 proposed theory of continental drift accepted in 1960s

allometry

How trates scale with body size

historical biogeography

Reconstructs the origin dispersal and extinction of taxa and biota

Biogeography defined

The study of geographic variation in nature from genes to entire communities and ecosystems. How does biological diversity vary over the surface of the earth?

uniformitarianism/actualism

This assumption that basic physical and biological processes now operating on earth remain unchanged throughout time Hutton 1795 and Lyle 1830

ecological biogeography

accounts for present distribution in geographic variation in diversity in terms of interactions between organisms in there physical and biotic environments

orthogenesis

evolution of a group continues is only one direction.

inductive reasoning

from specific to general

extensionist

long distance dispersal across barriers too unlikely. Proposed historic but now submerged land bridges

Lewis and Clark expedition

one of the most ambitious biogeographic surveys ever conducted

Sir Joseph Banks

prominent naturalist on H.M.S. Endeavor (1768-1771) collected 1000 new species. confirmed buffon's law noted cosmopolitan species

some biases in biogeographic instruction

taxonomic historical ecological descriptive theoretical