Biogeographic Range

Biological DistributionsCartographic and database problemsRestricted ranges: endemicsSeparated ranges: disjunctsWidespread ranges: cosmopolitans Provinces and realmsDynamic ranges

Cartographic and database problems in mapping biogeographic ranges

• What scale (local - global)?• Dots or areas?• Static or dynamic?

motile species (seasonal migrations,

eruptives) dynamic ranges

• Database issues?

Scale (defined by

purpose of the range

mapping exercise)

individuals

populations

regional

continental

global

Range representatio

n: dots or areas?

e.g. swordfern (Polystichum munitum)“Ferns and Fern Allies of BC”“Ferns of North America”

Database problems:e.g. plant collection sites (U. Alaska herbarium)

Pacific Ocean

Arctic Ocean

BeringSea

AKYK

R

BC

Migratory species range maps

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http://birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide

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1962

Winter “eruptions” of boreal birds

(e.g red and white-winged crossbills)1963

19651964

Data from the annual Christmas count of the Audubon Society

RC WWC WWC

WWC WWCRCRC

RC

Dynamic ranges: cartographic issues

(e.g. Jalas, J. and Suominen, J. (eds.) 1972. “Atlas Florae Europae”. Helsinki)

Native occurrenceIntroduction (established alien)Status unknown or uncertainExtinctProbably extinctRecord uncertain (as to identification or locality)

+x?

before 19001900-391940 onwards

Age of introduction

Summarizing range

1. Extent endemic; provincial; continental;

cosmopolitan

2. Locationprefixes: amphi-/circum-/pan-/suffixes: -tropical/-boreal/-arctic/-pacific

biogeographic realm/province

3. Continuitycontinuous - disjunct

EndemicsOrganisms that have restricted distributions. The range can be very local (narrow endemics) or regional (broad endemics). Local endemics are of particular concern because they usually have small populations and may be under threat of extinction.Endemics may have evolved recently, and still be restricted to their place of origin (neoendemics) or be “living fossils” (palaeoendemics). The latter may survive in refuges from competition (evolutionary relicts) or in limited areas of suitable climate (climatic relicts).

Remote islands are neoendemism hotspots

New Zealand Hawai’ian islands

Location and age of the Hawai’ian islands

Hawai’ian endemics

e.g. endemic cricketsswordtails: 174 spp.tree crickets: 68 spp. ground crickets: 9 spp.

e.g. endemic plantssilverswords*: 28 spp.*silverswords and the closely related Hawai’ian tarweeds are members of the sunflower family

Endemism and island age

Galapagos geography

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100 km

0

20

40

60

80

100

0 50 100 150 200 250 300

End

em

ic s

ubsp

eci

es

of

Darw

in’s

Fin

ches

(%)

Distance of island from centre of archipelago (Santa Cruz Is. (Indefatigable)) [km]

Endemism and isolation(within the Galapagos archipelago)

Endemic plant

species, Alaska

Pacific Ocean

Arctic Ocean

BeringSea

30+20-2910-19

1-9

Paleoendemics: e.g. Gingko biloba

(“the living fossil” - Darwin)

“Discovered” by western science in 1691 by the German botanist/physician Engelbert Kaempfer in monastery gardens in southern China. Gingko trees had been cultivated by Buddhist monks from about AD1100. Small populations are known from remote mountains between Zheijiang and Anhwei provinces in southwestern China. These may be native or temple escapes (seeds carried by birds).Kaempfer brought gingko seeds to Holland (planted AD1730). Introduced into North America in 1784.

Is Gingko biloba the ultimate evolutionary relict?

Gingko bilobaGingko huttonii

Jurassic (175Ma)England Jura

ssic

C

ret.

T

ert

iary

208

144

65

Ma0

No. spp,0 10 20

Triassic

Gingko range

Tertiary

MesozoicCretaceous (15 spp.)Jurassic (6 spp.)

Recent (1 sp.)PlioceneMioceneOligoceneEocenePaleocene

Extinct:7 Ma

Extinct:2.5 Ma

Pinus radiata (Monterey

pine)a

palaeoendemic climatic relict.

(Total stand area ~250 ha)

California

Pacific Ocean

Pinus radiata:late Tertiary

and Quaternary

fossil localities

RecentPleistocenePlioceneMiocene

Radiata pine plantations now cover 10,000x the native area in California

Chile: 1.5M haNZ: 1.4M ha

Australia: 0.6M haS. Africa: ? ha

Now the world’s most widely-planted softwood tree species. Favoured because its growth period is not genetically limited* and it is therefore never dormant. Consequently it is unable to withstand severe frosts.

In NZ radiata pine grows 20x times as fast as Canadian pines

Disjunct distributions: e.g. Gorilla gorilla

G. g. gorilla range (in red)G. g. diehli (in green with arrow)G. b. graueri (in blue)G. b. beringei (in orange with arrow)

Common plant disjunctions

Amphitropical disjunctions

Southern continent disjunctions

Oddities: Empetraceae panboreal with scattered outposts in southern

hemisphere

Cosmopolitan organisms

e.g. Vespertilionidae (bats)

Biogeographic realms

Defined as large areas (continental scale) having

more-or-less uniform assemblages of species.

Note differences between botanical and zoological realms (e.g. “boreal” vs.

palearctic and nearctic)

Philip Sclater (1858)

“An important problem in Natural History, and one that has hitherto been too little agitated, is that of ascertaining the most natural primary divisions of the earth's surface, taking the amount of similarity or dissimilarity of organized life solely as our guide. It is a well-known and universally acknowledged fact that we can choose two portions of the globe of which the respective Faunæ and Floræ shall be so different, that we should not be far wrong in supposing them to have been the result of distinct creations. Assuming then that there are, or may be, more areas of creation than one, the question naturally arises, how many of them are there, and what are their respective extents and boundaries, or in other words, what are the most natural primary ontological divisions of the earth's surface?” Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society: Zoology 2 (1858): 130-145

“On the General Geographical Distribution of the Members of the Class Aves”

Sclater’s realms (1858)

My Dear Mr. Sclater --Your paper on "The Geographical Distribution of Birds” has particularly interested me, and I hope that a few remarks and criticisms thereon may not be unacceptable to you. With your division of the earth into six grand zoological provinces I perfectly agree, and believe they will be confirmed by every other department of zoology as well as by botany*.

Response from Alfred Wallace:

Letter from Mr. Wallace Concerning the Geographical Distribution of Birds (1859) Ibis, v. 1

(*my italics)

Zoogeographic realms

Largely based on Wallace’s analysis of the ranges of families of mammals

“Wallace’s Line”“There is perhaps no fact connected with geographical distribution more extraordinary, and at first sight inexplicable, than the division of such an apparently homogeneous tract as the Indian Archipelago* between two provinces which have less in common than any other two upon the earth. To the geographer and geologist, there is absolutely nothing to mark the division between the two regions.     …… Between the Indian and Australian zoological regions, as above defined, I believe there is absolutely no true transition…..I believe that these two regions are as absolutely distinct as South America and Africa, and it is only because they are separated by straits of from 20 to 100 miles wide, instead of the Atlantic, that they have become slightly connected by the interchange of a few species and genera.”

Letter from Mr. Wallace Concerning the Geographical Distribution of Birds (1859) Ibis, v. 1

*Indonesian archipelago

Oriental-Australian distinctiveness

Oriental

Australian

Isolines = percentage of the Indonesian fauna (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, butterflies and land snails) that are of Australian origin

7510 30 55

“cockatoo limit”

>3002

Number of freshwater fish species

Oriental-Australian

realm boundaries

Geographical range of beech species

F. mexicana F. grandiflora F. sylvatica F. orientalis F. lucida F. hayataeF.engleriana

F. longipetiolata

F. japonicaF. englerianaF. mulinervis

Brown areas are temperate deciduous forest biomes

Dynamic ranges: historicBuffalo (Bison bison)European Starling

(Sturnus vulgaris)

1900

Climate change and range dynamics

Is climate change leading to range shifts at present?

pyrrhuloxia (Cardinalis sinuatis) sage sparrow (Amphispiza belli)

Dynamic ranges: presentpyrulloxhia (1970-89)

19

80

-4

1

97

0-4

19

85

-9

1

97

5-9

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Dynamic ranges: presentsage sparrow: (1970-89)

19

80

-4

1

97

0-4

19

85

-9

1

97

5-9

Dynamic ranges: present and future(Mountain pine beetle)

Climatic control on MPB range; e.g.,

1. Underbark temperatures ≤ -40°C cause 100% mortality in MPB populations;

2. MPBs fly only when air temperatures >18.3°C

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/air/climate/indicat/beetle_id1.html

Dynamic ranges: present and future

(Mountain pine beetle)

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/air/climate/indicat/beetle_id1.html

Dynamic ranges: future

American beechPD (modeled at top left), and x2 CO2 scenarios(output from 5 climatemodels)

Remnant stands inAppalachia and Maine?

http://www.fs.fed.us./ne/delaware/atlas/

Dynamic ranges: future

Future range of Fagus grandifolia (American beech) (x2 CO2 scenario)