Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach

Through eight successful editions, and over nearly 40 years, Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach has provided a thorough and comprehensive exploration of the varied scientific disciplines and research that are essential to understanding the subject. The text has been praised for its solid background in historical biogeography and basic biology, that is enhanced and illuminated by discussions of current research. This new edition incorporates the exciting changes of the recent years, and presents a thoughtful exploration of the research and controversies that have transformed our understanding of the biogeography of the world. It also clearly identifies the three quite different arenas of biogeographical research: continental biogeography, island biogeography and marine biogeography. It is the only current textbook with full coverage of marine biogeography. It reveals how the patterns of life that we see today have been created by the two great Engines of the Planet - the Geological Engine, plate tectonics, which alters the conditions of life on the planet, and the Biological Engine, evolution, which responds to these changes by creating new forms and patterns of life.

Table of Contents:
Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii 1 The History of Biogeography 1 Lessons from the Past 1 Ecological versus Historical Biogeography, and Plants versus Animals 3 Biogeography and Creation 4 The Distribution of Life Today 5 Evolution – a Flawed and Dangerous Idea! 7 Enter Darwin – and Wallace 8 World Maps: Biogeographical Regions of Plants and Animals 10 Getting around the World 12 The Origins of Modern Historical Biogeography 16 The Development of Ecological Biogeography 19 Living Together 20 Marine Biogeography 23 Island Biogeography 24 Biogeography Today 26 SECTION I: THE CHALLENGE OF EXISTING 31 2 Patterns of Distribution: Finding a Home 33 Limits of Distribution 37 The Niche 38 Overcoming the Barriers 39 Climatic Limits: The Palms 41 A Successful Family: The Daisies (Asteraceae) 42 Patterns among Plovers 46 Magnolias: Evolutionary Relicts 49 The Strange Case of the Testate Amoeba 50 Climatic Relicts 52 Topographical Limits and Endemism 59 Physical Limits 60 Species Interaction: A Case of the Blues 66 Competition 69 Reducing Competition 71 Predators and Prey, Parasites and Hosts 73 Migration 76 Invasion 79 3 Communities and Ecosystems: Living Together 89 The Community 89 The Ecosystem 92 Ecosystems and Species Diversity 95 Biotic Assemblages on a Global Scale 98 Mountain Biomes 103 Global Patterns of Climate 106 Climate Diagrams 109 Modelling Biomes and Climate 112 4 Patterns of Biodiversity 117 How Many Species are There? 118 Latitudinal Gradients of Diversity 123 Is Evolution Faster in the Tropics? 131 The Legacy of Glaciation 132 Latitude and Species Ranges 133 Diversity and Altitude 134 Biodiversity Hotspots 136 Diversity in Space and Time 139 Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis 141 Dynamic Biodiversity and Neutral Theory 142 SECTION II: THE ENGINES OF THE PLANET 147 5 Plate Tectonics 149 The Evidence for Plate Tectonics 149 Changing Patterns of Continents 154 How Plate Tectonics affects the Living World, Part I: Events on Land 154 How Plate Tectonics affects the Living World, Part II: Events in the Oceans 156 Islands and Plate Tectonics 162 Terranes 164 6 Evolution, the Source of Novelty 169 The Mechanism of Evolution: The Genetic System 172 From Populations to Species 173 Sympatry versus Allopatry 176 Defining the Species 179 A Case Study: Darwin’s Finches 180 Controversies and Evolution 183 Charting the Course of Evolution 188 SECTION III: ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY 193 7 Life, Death and Evolution on Islands 195 Types of Island 196 Getting There: The Challenges of Arriving 196 Dying There: Problems of Survival 197 Adapting and Evolving 199 The Hawaiian Islands 201 Integrating the Data: The Theory of Island Biogeography 208 Modifying the Theory 212 The General Dynamic Model for Oceanic Island Biogeography 214 Nestedness 216 Living Together: Incidence and Assembly Rules 216 Building an Ecosystem: The History of Rakata 218 SECTION IV: PATTERNS OF LIFE 229 8 From Evolution to Patterns of Life 231 Dispersal, Vicariance and Endemism 231 Methods of Analysis 232 Event‐Based Biogeography 236 Reticulate Patterns 239 The Molecular Approach to Historical Biogeography 245 Molecules and the More Distant Past 250 9 Patterns in the Oceans 255 Zones in the Ocean and on the Seafloor 257 Basic Biogeography of the Seas 260 The Open‐Sea Environment 261 The Ocean Floor 268 The Shallow‐Sea Environment 273 10 Patterns in the Past 291 Early Land Life on the Moving Continents 292 One World – for a While 295 Biogeography of the Earliest Mammals 298 Early History of the Flowering Plants 303 Reconstructing Early Biomes 305 11 Setting the Scene for Today 315 The Biogeographical Regions Today 315 The Basis of Mammal Biogeography 317 Patterns of Distribution Today, I: The Mammals 319 Patterns of Distribution Today, II: The Flowering Plants 322 History of Today’s Biogeographical Regions 323 The Old World Tropics: Africa, India and South‐East Asia 324 Australia 331 New Caledonia 334 New Zealand 335 The West Indies 336 South America 341 The Northern Hemisphere: Holarctic Mammals and Boreal Plants 346 12 Ice and Change 353 Climatic Wiggles 354 Interglacials and Interstadials 356 Biological Changes in the Pleistocene 358 The Last Glacial 361 Causes of Glaciation 370 The Current Interglacial: A False Start 375 Forests on the Move 377 The Dry Lands 381 Changing Sea Levels 383 A Time of Warmth 384 Climatic Cooling 386 Recorded History 388 Atmosphere and Oceans: Short‐Term Climate Change 388 The Future 390 SECTION V: PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS 397 13 The Human Intrusion 399 The Emergence of Humans 399 Modern Humans and the Megafaunal Extinctions 406 Plant Domestication and Agriculture 409 Animal Domestication 414 Diversification of Homo sapiens 415 The Biogeography of Human Parasitic Diseases 417 Environmental Impact of Early Human Cultures 420 14 Conservation Biogeography 425 Welcome to the Anthropocene 425 Less, and Less Interesting 429 What is behind the Biodiversity Crisis? 430 Crisis Management: Responding to Biodiversity Loss 435 The Birth of Conservation Biogeography 437 The Scope of Conservation Biogeography 438 Conservation Biogeography in Action 443 The Future is Digital 446 Conclusions 449 Glossary 455 Index 469 Colour plates between pages 146 and 147

About the Author :
Barry Cox formerly King's College, London, UK Peter D. Moore is Emeritus Reader in Ecology at King's College London. He has written extensively on ecology and global environmental change and was, for 35 years, Ecology Correspondent for the journal Nature Richard Ladle is Titular Professor of Conservation Biogeography at the Federal University of Alagoas on the northeast coast of Brazil. He is also a Senior research associate at the School of Geography in Oxford University, as well as the director of Tamandua Environmental Consultants