Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
1 Introduction 1
Lessons from the Past 1
Ecological versus Historical Biogeography, and Plants versus Animals 4
Biogeography and Creation 5
The Distribution of Life Today 7
Evolution – a Flawed and Dangerous Idea! 8
Enter Darwin – and Wallace 10
World Maps – the Biogeographical Regions of Plants and Animals 13
Getting Around the World 15
The Origins of Modern Historical Biogeography 20
The Development of Ecological Biogeography 23
Living Together 24
Marine Biogeography 27
Island Biogeography 28
Biogeography Today 30
Section I: The Challenge of Existing 37
2 Patterns of Distribution: Finding a Home 39
Limits of Distribution 42
The Niche 44
Overcoming the Barriers 45
Climatic Limits: The Palms 46
A Successful Family: The Daisies (Asteraceae) 48
Patterns Among Plovers 51
Magnolias: Evolutionary Relicts 55
The Strange Case of the Testate Amoeba 57
Climatic Relicts 58
Topographical Limits and Endemism 65
Physical Limits 67
Species Interactions: A Case of the Blues 73
Competition 75
Reducing Competition 76
Predators and Prey, Parasites and Hosts 79
Migration 83
Invasion 85
3 Communities and Ecosystems: Living Together 97
The Community 97
The Ecosystem 100
Ecosystems and Species Diversity 103
Biotic Assemblages on a Global Scale 108
Mountain Biomes 112
Global Patterns of Climate 116
Climate Diagrams 119
Modelling Biomes and Climate 122
4 Patterns of Biodiversity 127
Measuring Biodiversity: How Many Species are There? 128
Latitudinal Gradients of Diversity 132
Is Evolution Faster in the Tropics? 139
The Legacy of Glaciation 141
Latitude and Species Ranges 142
Diversity and Altitude 143
Biodiversity Hotspots 146
Diversity in Space and Time 148
The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis 151
Dynamic Biodiversity and Neutral Theory 151
Section II: The Engines of The Planet 157
5 Plate Tectonics 159
The Evidence for Plate Tectonics 159
Changing Patterns of Continents 164
How Plate Tectonics Changes the World 164
Islands and Plate Tectonics 172
Terranes 174
6 Evolution, the Source of Novelty 179
The Origin of Novelty 179
From Populations to Species 180
Sympatry versus Allopatry 183
Defining the Species 188
Microevolution versus Macroevolution 189
Adaptive Radiations 189
Naming and Cataloguing the Living World 189
Charting the Course of Evolution 190
Morphology Gives Way to Molecules 193
Darwin’s Finches Updated 194
Section III: Islands and Oceans 197
7 Life, Death and Evolution on Islands 199
Types of Island 200
Getting There: The Challenges of Arriving 200
Dying There: The Problems of Survival 202
Adapting and Evolving 203
The Hawaiian Islands 206
Integrating the Data: The Theory of Island Biogeography 214
Modifying the Theory 216
The General Dynamic Model for Oceanic Island Biogeography 219
Nestedness 221
Living Together: Incidence and Assembly Rules 221
Building an Ecosystem: The History of Rakata 223
8 Patterns in the Oceans 235
Zones in the Ocean and on the Sea Floor 237
Basic Biogeography of the Seas 240
The Open?Sea Environment 240
The Ocean Floor 246
The Shallow?Sea Environment 250
And Finally … Marine Biogeographical Realms of the World 263
Section IV: Historical Biogeography 269
9 From Evolution to Patterns of Life 271
Studying the Patterns 272
Methods of Analyzing the Patterns 273
Studying Organisms and their Molecules 287
An Integrative Approach to Historical Biogeography 290
Investigating the More Distant Past 292
10 Geography, Life and Climates Through Time 299
Introduction 299
Early Land Life on the Moving Continents 300
Animal Life Through the Mesozoic 304
The End of the Mesozoic World 308
Climates and Plants Through Time 309
Reconstructing Plant Life and Biomes 310
Evolution of the Mammals 318
The Mesozoic Roots of the Radiation of Modern Mammals 320
11 Patterns of Life Today 327
The Biogeographical Regions Today 327
The History of Today’s Biogeographical Regions 334
The Old World Tropics: Africa, India and Southeast Asia 334
Australia 342
New Caledonia 345
New Zealand 346
The West Indies 348
South America 351
The Northern Hemisphere: Holarctic Mammals and Boreal Plants 359
12 The Arrival of the Ice Ages 367
Climatic Wiggles 368
Interglacials and Interstadials 369
Biological Changes in the Pleistocene 371
The Last Glacial 375
Causes of Glaciation 382
The Current Interglacial: A False Start 388
Forests on the Move 390
The Dry Lands 393
Changing Sea Levels 396
A Time of Warmth 398
Climatic Cooling 399
Recorded History 400
Atmosphere and Oceans: Short?Term Climate Change 402
The Future 403
Section V: People and Problems 409
13 The Human Intrusion 411
The Emergence of Humans 411
Modern Humans and the Megafaunal Extinctions 420
Plant Domestication and Agriculture 423
Animal Domestication 428
The Diversification of Homo sapiens 430
The Biogeography of Human Parasitic Diseases 431
The Environmental Impact of Early Human Cultures 434
14 Conservation Biogeography 439
Welcome to the Anthropocene 439
The Sixth Mass Extinction? 440
Less, and Less Interesting 444
What’s Behind the Biodiversity Crisis? 445
Crisis Management: Responding to Biodiversity Loss 451
The Birth of Conservation Biogeography 452
The Scope of Conservation Biogeography 453
Conservation Biogeography in Action 459
The Future is Digital 462
Conclusions 463
Glossary 471
Index 481
Colour plates between pages 240 and 241
