Topic 8 - Australian Frog Biogeography

Frog Biogeography

The broad biogeographic zones are driven largely by climate. Frog diversity is higher around mountains and therefore driven by topography. Frog diversity is also highest where it is warmer and wetter. They choose mountains because rainfall occurs there.

North QLD Diversity

Here we have the highest frog diversity in Australia. About 1/3 of Australia’s frog species occur in north QLD and all 6 families are present here. It is so high due to:

• warm and wet conditions

• mountains

Example - Wet Tropics

Rainforests have been expanded and shrunk through time. In this case, they have been shrunk, leaving frogs isolated in ‘pockets’ of forest, resulting in new species being formed. This is how we get so many different and diverse species of frogs.

How are Distributions formed?

1. Where the habitats are now and where they were in the past.

2. Where barriers are now and where they were in the past.

3. Competition.