Biology > EXAM REVIEW > Rutgers UniversityECOLOGY 11:704:351Final Exam Review- Ecology (All)

Rutgers UniversityECOLOGY 11:704:351Final Exam Review- Ecology

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CH 18 BIOGEOGRAPHY Biogeography and Spatial Scale 1. How living things distributed in space. 2. Generally concerned with large spatial scales, or inter-relationships between larger and smaller sca... les. 3. Spatial terms are relative to each other, not absolute. 4. Also scaled to the size or mobility of the organism. Global (World Scale) , Continental (Continent Size) , Regional (Area- New Jersey), Landscape (New Brunswick) , Local (Community) Measures of how community composition changes across spatial scales: Alpha diversity: (alpha a) ● Small scale (relative) Gamma diversity: Y ● Large scale (relative) ● Total species pool Beta diversity: B ● Turnover between alpha and gamma High beta means high turnover in species composition. Thus adds up to high gamma because gamma is cumulative. Biogeography was born with scientific exploration in the nineteenth century. Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) is the father of biogeography. Wallace is best known, along with Darwin, as the co-discoverer of the principles of natural selection. But he also initiated the study of species distribution across large spatial scales. The six biogeographic regions correspond roughly to Earth’s six major tectonic plates. The plates move or drift, causing continental drift. North America was part of Laurasia and South America was part of Gondwana. The legacy of continental drifts can be found in the fossil record and in existing taxonomic groups. Vicariance- evolutionary separation of species by barriers such as those formed by continental drift. In sum, tropics are hot, wet and relatively seasonal [Show More]

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