C. Barry Cox was formerly Head of Biological Sciences, King's College, London, UK.

Richard J. Ladle is Titular Professor of Conservation Biogeography at the Federal University of Alagoas on the north-east coast of Brazil. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the School of Geography in Oxford University, as well as the director of Tamandua Environmental Consultants.

Peter D. Moore is Emeritus Reader in Ecology at King's College London. He has written extensively on ecology and global environmental change and was, for 35 years, Ecology Correspondent for the journal Nature.

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