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Contents

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

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