Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Evolutionary biogeography integrates distributional, phylogenetic, molecular,
and paleontological data in order to discover biogeographic patterns and as-
sess the historical changes that shaped them. To elucidate the ontology of
evolutionary biogeography, several complex issues should be understood. In
this chapter I discuss the relationship between ecology and history, the relev-
ance of the genealogical and ecological hierarchies, biogeographic patterns
and processes, biotic components, and cenocrons. I also provide a general
introduction to the available biogeographic methods of evolutionary biogeo-
graphy.
Biogeography is the study of the geographic distribution of taxa and their at-
tributes in space and time (Hausdorf and Hennig 2007). In addition to recog-
nizing distributional patterns of plants, animals, and other organisms, biogeo-
graphers identify natural biotic units to provide a biogeographic regionaliz-
ation of Earth, postulate hypotheses about the processes that may have
shaped such patterns, and, on the basis of discovered patterns, help pre-
dict the consequences of global planetary changes and select areas for biod-
iversity conservation (Morrone 2004a). There are several interesting ques-
tions posed by biogeographers, but in essence, they can be reduced to two
basic questions: Where are organisms distributed, and why are they distrib-
uted there?
Space, time, and form (
form
refers not only to the structure of organisms
but also to all their characters, be they structural, functional, or behavioral)
are the three dimensions of biodiversity (Croizat 1964). Although space is
basic to biogeography and, in general, to evolutionary biology, it has been
