Biology 2483A Lecture Notes - Laurasia, Insular Biogeography, Hectare
5 Dec 2013
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Document Summary
Physical factors and species interactions are important regulators of species distributions at local scales. However, we must also look at the processes operating on larger scales. Global and regional scale processes are also important in determining the distributions and diversity of species on earth. Biogeography is the study of patterns of species composition and diversity across geographic locations. If you took a trip across the world to visit every forest biome on earth, you would see that species composition and diversity differs from biome to biome. The amazon rainforest is the most species-rich forest in the world, with approximately 1,300 tree species. In contrast, the boreal forests of canada have only two tree species, that cover vast areas. Biogeographic patterns on earth: species richness and composition vary with latitude. In the northern hemisphere, we have temperate evergreen forests in the pacific. In the southern hemisphere, we have temperate evergreen forests on the northern and southern islands of new zealand.
