Topic 4

Professor Frank @ UCF

Biogeography

The study of distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and over geological time

Species Range

A species range is the geographical distribution for ALL individuals of a given species.

Temporally dynamic

Ecological Biogeography

looks at the current distribution of a species and seeks to explain this distribution in terms of interactions at the community level between these organisms and their environment

One aspect of Ecological Biogeography:

Species richness

Historical Biogeography

looks at the changed that have occurred in a species range over evolutionary time

An aspect of historical biogeography

Endemism, the restriction of a species range to a particular area

Why are platypus only found in australia?

Endemism, restriction of a species range to a particular area

Second aspect of Historical Biogeography

Disjunct distribution

Disjust distribution

when two or more groups of related animals are widely seperated from each other geographically.

ex. camels originating in NA

The distribution of any species is due to a combination of ______ and _____ factors

Biotic and Abiotic

Biotic factors include

what types of plant for food/shelter, and animals as competitors

Abiotic factors include

nonliving factors such as rainfall, soil quality

The largest biogeographical division of the earths surface based upon distribution of species is called a _______, ______ or ________

Ecozone, Faunal Region, or Biogeographical Realm

The original term for biogeogrpahical distribution of the earths surface based upon distribution of species is

Faunal realm

The six Faunal realm, but today there are ________

Nearctic, Palearctic, Neotropical, Ethiopial, Oriental, Australia

There are 8

Within each faunal region are subunits called _______

Biomes

Biomes

differ in the nature of the soil, precipitation and plant types

Palearctic, has no endemic families

The largest terrestrial faunal region, made up of the upper right quarter of the map

Palearctic is so large that it is sometimes divided into the

Western Palearctic and Eastern Palearctic

Nearctic, 2 endemic

Faunal region made up of North America and Greenland and MEXICO

Holarctic is the combination of....

Palearctic and Nearctic

Neotropical, 19 endemic

Faunal region made up of south america, central america and SOUTH FLORIDA

South florida is part of which faunal region?

Neotropical

Afrotropic, 18 endemic

Faunal region made up of Madagascar, sub-Saharan Africa, and the southern half of the Arabian Peninsula

Indomalaya (oriental)

WEST of the wallace line, includes india

Wallace line seperates....

Indomalaya from Australasia

Wallacea

The portion of Australasia that borders the wallace line

West of the wallace line (asian side)

Placental mammals

East of the wallace line (australian side)

Marsupial Mammals

Australasia

East of the wallace lune, australia, tasmania

Has 28 species of which 17 are endemic, 61% of all families being found only in this faunal region

Australasia

Oceanic

the oceans of the world and the isolated islands (hawaii)

The islands of the oceanic are used by mammals for....

Breeding purposes

The oceanic faunal regions are composed of 14 families and ______% of those families are endemic

100%

14/14

Which faunal region has greatest number of endemic families?

Oceanic

Antartic

Faunal region made up of antartica and several island groups.

Does antartica support any mammal families?

NO

Biome

Characterized by habitat conditions and community structure

Determined by seasonal temps, rainfall

Deserts

The driest biome, less than 10cm annual rainfall.

These biomes are due to their location in the "rain shadow" of a mountain range

Deserts

Dry shrublands and Dry woodlands

Semiarid, getting more rainfall than deserts

Summers long hot and dry

Most of the rainfall in the dry shrublands/woodlands occurs during what period?

Mild winter period

Grasslands

Warm during the summer but cold during the winter

North america has two types of grasslands: ________ and _______

Short grass and Tall grass praries

Africa, South america, and Australia have this type of grassland:

Savannahs

South asia has this type of grass lands where heavy rain alternate with a dry season

South asia

Evergreen Broadleaf forests

Have all the trees growing close together to form a dense continuious canopy

Rainfall is constant all year long

Tropical Rainforest

Has regular heavy rainfall, average humidity of 80%

Deciduous Broadleaf Forests

Rainfall is not a constant all year long

Tropical Deciduous broadleaf forests

Drop some or all of their leaves during a pronounced dry season

Temperate Deciduous Broadleaf Forests

Recieve less rainfall annually, colder winters than the other broadleaf forest

Unlike tropical rainforests, _______ soil holds nutrients

Temperate deciduous broadleaf forests

Coniferous Forests

Evolved to deal with low rainfall levels and stressful winter minths

Boreal Forest

Type of coniferous forests found across Northern Europe, Asia, and North America

- Glaciers, cold lakes

Montane Forests

Type of coniferous forests found on mountainsides

Temperate Rainforests

Specialized coniferious forests recieving a great deal of coastal rain

Southern Pine forest

Type of Coniferous forests that is along coastal plains, adapted to sandy nutrient poor soils and fire based communities

Arctic Tundras

Vast, treeless plains located between polar caps

-Very low temperatures

Alpine Tundras

Found at elevations above the tree line

______ _____ proposed the idea of Continental drift

Alfred Wegner

The driving force of Continental drift

Plate tectonics

- large scale motion of Earths lithosphere due to geographical forces

The lithosphere is divided up into ______ ____, and there are 7-8 of them

Tectonic plates

During what period did all of the continents joined into one continent called Pangea?

Permian Period

During the _____, Pangea had split into two major landmasses:

Laurasia (Nothern Continent)

Gondwana (Southern Continent)

Laurasia, the northern continent of pangea includes

North America, Europe, Asia, NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

Gondwana, the southern continent of pangea includes

South America, Africa, Australia, Antartica, SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

India would collide with Asia to form the

Himalayas

Both the Laurasiatherian and the Euarchntoglires evolved in Laurasia, some combine them into the clade:

Boroeutheria

Earth entered an Ice age during the last third of the cenozoic, the ______ period

Quaternary

aka Quaternary Glaciation/Ice Age or Pleistoncene Glaciation/Ice Age and CONTINUES TODAY

An ice age is considered a period of long term ______ in temperature in earths surface and atmosphere resulting in the _______ of continental and polar _____ _____.

Reduction

Expansion

Ice Sheets

Within an Ice age, theres fluctuating periods of relative warmth:________

and cold:_______

Warmth: Interglacial Periods

Cold: Glacial periods

Today, we are in a _______ period

Interglacial

Beringea

The berging land bridge that allowed for high levels of species dispersal between North America and Eurasia

Panama Isthmus

Connecting north and south america, allowing for significant fuanal exchange called the Great American Exchange

During interglacial periods, sea levels ______, causing an _______ in isolation

Rise, Increase

Metatherian distribution is limited to:

Marsupials primiarily to South America and Australia

The oldest follis metatherians were found today in what is today ______, and westward into north america

China

The earliest definite marsupial fossil was found in _______ and is called ___________ ________

Montana

Called: Peradectes minor

In _____ america, metatherians diversified into:

South america

->

Sparasadonta

Sparasadonta, (2nd group of metatherians in south america) gave rise to carnivorous species:

Thylacosimilus, a saber tooth predator

The panama Isthmus allowed one marsupial: _______ _______ (the opossum) to migrate into North America

Didelphis virginiana

Around 50mya, the ancestors of Australidephia, migrated from South America into ______.

Australia

Australia seperated from antartica but were still close to each other which allowed for the ______ of marsupial species

Rafting

The great american exchange was cuased by two geological events:

______ activity causing a rise of landmass, the Panama Isthmus between North and South America

and

______ sea levels

Volcanic Activity

Decreasing Sea levels