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To unravel the complex shared history of the Earth and its life forms, biogeographers analyze patterns of biodiversity, species distribution, and geological history. So far, the field of biogeography has been fragmented into divergent systematic and evolutionary approaches, with no overarching or unifying research theme or method. In this text, Lynne Parenti and Malte Ebach address this discord and outline comparative tools to unify biogeography. Rooted in phylogenetic systematics, this comparative biogeographic approach offers a comprehensive empirical framework for discovering and deciphering the patterns and processes of the distribution of life on Earth. The authors cover biogeography from its fundamental ideas to the most effective ways to implement them. Real-life examples illustrate concepts and problems, including the first comparative biogeographical analysis of the Indo-West Pacific, an introduction to biogeographical concepts rooted in the earth sciences, and the integration of phylogeny, evolution and earth history.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface(p. xi)
• 1 Introduction(p. l)
• Classification in Science(p. 1)
• Earth and Life Evolved Together(p. 4)
• Biogeography(p. 8)
• Comparative Biogeography(p. 9)
• Classification of Areas: Systematics and Biogeography(p. 10)
• Toward a Comparative Biogeography(p. 11)
• Organization of This Book(p. 13)
• Part 1 History and Homology(p. 15)
• 2 History and Development of Comparative Biogeography(p. 17)
• The Meaning of Place(p. 17)
• Exposing the Idea(p. 34)
• Contradictory Biogeography(p. 36)
• Area Homology(p. 42)
• Establishing a Comparative Biogeography(p. 47)
• 3 Building Blocks of Biogeography: Endemic Areas and Areas of Endemism(p. 53)
• Endemism(p. 53)
• Taxonomic Units and Taxa(p. 61)
• Taxonomic Areas and Biota(p. 63)
• Discovering Biotic Areas(p. 66)
• 4 Building Blocks of Biogeography: Biotic Areas and Area Homology(p. 75)
• Biotic Areas and Area Homology(p. 75)
• Discovering Biotic Area Relationships(p. 77)
• The Real World: Complexity of Areagrams(p. 79)
• Part 2 Methods(p. 101)
• 5 Biogeographic Processes(p. 103)
• Biogeographic Processes(p. 103)
• Vicariance and Dispersal(p. 106)
• Other Explanatory Models(p. 112)
• Why Not to Optimize Areas in Biogeography: Areagrams versus Taxon/Area Cladograms (TACs)(p. 114)
• 6 Biogeographic Methods and Applications(p. 119)
• Comparing Biogeographic Methods and Applications(p. 119)
• Systematic Biogeographic Methods(p. 121)
• Evolutionary Biogeographic Methods(p. 133)
• Biogeographic Applications(p. 142)
• 7 The Systematic Biogeographic Method(p. 153)
• Doing Systematic Biogeography(p. 153)
• The Structure of Areagrams and Taxon-Area Cladograms(p. 161)
• Converting Cladograms and Trees into Areagrams and TA Cs(p. 162)
• Solving Single Areagrams(p. 168)
• The General Areagram: Combining Areagrams and Subtrees(p. 177)
• Discovering Geographical Congruence(p. 181)
• Part 3 Implementation(p. 189)
• 8 Geology and Comparative Biogeography(p. 191)
• A Biogeographer's Guide to Geology(p. 191)
• The Journey of a Pebble: Exploring Geological Concepts(p. 194)
• Systematic Biogeography and Geology: Reciprocal Illumination(p. 205)
• 9 Implementing Principles: Biogeography of the Pacific(p. 213)
• The Challenge of Pacific Biogeography(p. 213)
• Global Endemic Areas(p. 216)
• Systematic Biogeography of the Pacific(p. 219)
• Areagram Analysis(p. 227)
• General Pattern(p. 228)
• Reconsidered Proposal of Endemic Areas(p. 234)
• Biogeography of the Pacific: Patterns and Predictions(p. 235)
• 10 The Future of Biogeography(p. 239)
• Biogeography and Identity(p. 239)
• Overview(p. 240)
• Biogeography as an Independent Discipline(p. 243)
• Biogeography as an Integrative Discipline(p. 244)
• Summary(p. 249)
• Glossary(p. 251)
• Bibliography(p. 259)
• Index(p. 281)
• About the Authors(p. 293)

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CHOICE Review

In this well-written book, Parenti (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History) and Ebach (Arizona State) provide a clear overview of the field of comparative biogeography (study of the geographical distributions of life forms) starting with developments in the late 18th century. The book is divided into three major parts. The first part describes the history of comparative biogeography and how it is connected to evolutionary and systematic biogeography. The topic of endemism (restriction of species distributions to specific areas) is discussed at length to illustrate the main points of this section. The second part of the book focuses on models and analytical methods employed by biogeographers, and how those methods differ from methods of those studying comparative biogeography. The final section provides a detailed chapter on geological processes that lead to preserved records of plant and animal distributions. The penultimate chapter is an extremely detailed comparative biogeography of the Indo-West Pacific region illustrating many of the concepts and principles covered in the previous chapters. At the end of the work, the authors propose a future direction for biogeography in which biogeographers focus on both classifying biotic areas and explaining the distribution mechanisms of taxa. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. D. Goldblum Northern Illinois University

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Lynne R. Parenti is Curator of Fishes and Research Scientist at the National Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institution; coeditor, with R. Claro and K.C. Lindeman, of Ecology of the Marine Fishes of Cuba; and coauthor, with C.J. Humphries, of Cladistic Biogeography.
Malte C. Ebach is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State Universitys International Institute for Species Exploration and coauthor, with D. M. Williams, of Foundations of Systematics and Biogeography.