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Fundamentals of Biogeography

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Fundamentals of Biogeography FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOGEOGRAPHY Fundamentals of Biogeography presents an engaging and comprehensive introduction to biogeography, explaining the ecology, geography, and history of animals and plants. Defining and explaining the nature of populations, communities and ecosystems, the book examines where different animals and plants live and how they came to be living there; investigates how populations grow, interact, and survive, and how communities are formed and change; and predicts the shape of communities in the twenty-first century. Illustrated throughout with informative diagrams and attractive photos (many in colour), and including guides to further reading, chapter summaries, and an extensive glossary of key terms, Fundamentals of Biogeography clearly explains key concepts, life systems, and interactions. The book also tackles the most topical and controversial environmental and ethical concerns including: animal rights, species exploitation, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity, metapopulations, patchy landscapes, and chaos. Fundamentals of Biogeography presents an appealing introduction for students and all those interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the key topics and debates within the fields of biogeography, ecology and the environment. Revealing how life has and is adapting to its biological and physical surroundings, Huggett stresses the role of ecological, geographical, historical and human factors in fashioning animal and plant distributions and raises important questions concerning how humans have altered Nature, and how biogeography can affect conservation practice. Richard John Huggett is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Manchester ROUTLEDGE FUNDAMENTALS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY SERIES Series Editor: John Gerrard This new series of focused, introductory textbooks presents comprehensive, up-to-date introductions to the fundamental concepts, natural processes and human/environmental impacts within each of the core physical geography sub-disciplines: Biogeography, Climatology, Hydrology, Geomorphology and Soils. Uniformly designed, each volume includes student-friendly features: plentiful illustrations, boxed case studies, key concepts and summaries, further reading guides and a glossary. FUNDAMENTALS OF BIOGEOGRAPHY Richard John Huggett Routledge Fundamentals of Physical Geography London and New York First published 1998 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1998 Richard John Huggett The right of Richard John Huggett to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Huggett, Richard J. Fundamentals of biogeography/Richard John Huggett p. cm. —(Routledge Fundamentals of Physical Geography Series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Biogeography. I. Title. II. Series QH84.H84 1998 578¢.09–dc21 97–38998 ISBN 0-415-15498-7 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-15499-5 (pbk) ISBN 0-203-01280-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-17293-0 (Glassbook Format) For my family CONTENTS Series editor’s preface ix List of plates xi List of figures xiii List of tables xvi List of boxes xvii Author’s preface xix INTRODUCTION: STUDYING BIOGEOGRAPHY 1 1 WHAT IS BIOGEOGRAPHY? 4 2 LIFE AND THE ENVIRONMENT 13 3 THE DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANISMS 43 4 POPULATIONS 84 5 INTERACTING POPULATIONS 109 6 COMMUNITIES 138 7 COMMUNITY CHANGE 171 8 LIFE, HUMANS, AND MORALITY 209 Glossary 226 Further reading 235 Bibliography 240 Index 254 SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE We are presently living in a time of unparalleled change and when concern for the environment has never been greater. Global warming and climate change, possible rising sea levels, deforestation, desertification and widespread soil erosion are just some of the issues of current concern. Although it is the role of human activity in such issues that is of most concern, this activity affects the operation of the natural processes that occur within the physical environment. Most of these processes and their effects are taught and researched within the academic discipline of physical geography. A knowledge and understanding of physical geography, and all it entails, is vitally important. It is the aim of this Fundamentals of Physical Geography Series to provide, in five volumes, the fundamental nature of the physical processes that act on or just above the surface of the earth. The volumes in the series are Climatology, Geomorphology, Biogeography, Hydrology and Soils. The topics are treated in sufficient breadth and depth to provide the coverage expected in a Fundamentals series. Each volume leads into the topic by outlining the approach adopted. This is important because there may be several ways of approaching individual topics. Although each volume is complete in itself, there are many explicit and implicit references to the topics covered in the other volumes. Thus, the five volumes together provide a comprehensive insight into the totality that is Physical Geography. The flexibility provided by separate volumes has been designed to meet the demand created by the variety of courses currently operating in higher education institutions. The advent of modular courses has meant that physical geography is now rarely taught, in its entirety, in an ‘all-embracing’ course but is generally split into its main components. This is also the case with many Advanced Level syllabuses. Thus students and teachers are being frustrated increasingly by lack of suitable books and are having to recommend texts of which only a small part might be relevant to their needs. Such texts also tend to lack the detail required. It is the aim of this series to provide individual volumes of sufficient breadth and depth to fulfil new demands. The volumes should also be of use to sixth form teachers where modular syllabuses are also becoming common. Each volume has been written by higher education teachers with a wealth of experience in all aspects of the topics they cover and a proven ability in presenting information in a lively and interesting way. Each volume provides a comprehensive coverage of the subject matter using clear text divided into easily accessible sections and subsections. Tables, figures and photographs are used where appropriate as well as boxed case x SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE studies and summary notes. References to important previous studies and results are included but are used sparingly to avoid overloading the text. Suggestions for further reading are also provided. The main target readership is introductory level undergraduate students of physical geography or environmental science, but there will be much of interest to students from other disciplines and it is also hoped that sixth form teachers will be able to use the information that is provided in each volume. John Gerrard, 1997 PLATES COLOUR All colour plates appear in two plate sections between pp. 60–1 and pp. 156–7 1 Yellow-footed rock wallaby (Petrogale xanthropus) 2 Puma or mountain lion (Felis concolor) 3 A cycad (Zamia lindenii) in Ecuador 4 Common cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) 5 Common wallaroo or euro (Macropus robustus) 6 Leadbeater’s possum (Gymnobelideus leadbeateri) 7 Honey possum or noolbender (Tarsipes rostratus) 8 Cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) 9 (a) Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis) (b) Beaver dam and lodge, Rocky Mountains National Park, Colorado 10 (a) Red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) (b) Grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) 11 Skipper butterfly (Hesperia comma), on the North Downs, Surrey 12 (a) Reticulated velvet gecko (Oedura reticulata) (b) Gimlet gum (Eucalyptus salubris) in a wheat crop, near Kellerberrin, Western Australia 13 Golden lion tamarin (Leontideus rosalia) BLACK AND WHITE 1.1 Central American or Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdi), Belize 8 1.2 Nestor parrots (a) Kaka (Nestor meridionalis) (b) Kea (Nestor notabilis) 9 2.1 Spinifex hopping mouse (Notomys alexis) —world champion urine concentrator 26 3.1 Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) 50 xii PLATES 3.2 Brown or spotted kiwi (Apterix australis) 72 3.3 A relict Antillean insectivore (Solenodon) 74 3.4 Muntjac deer (Muntiacus reevesi) 80 5.1 Ratel or honey badger (Mellivora capensis) 111 7.1 Plant succession at Glacier Bay, Alaska (a) Upper Muir inlet (b) Goose Cove (c) Muir Point (d) York Creek 176 7.2 Secondary succession in Great Basin ghost towns, United States (a) Terrill (b) The sole remaining building (c) Wonder (d) The foundation at Wonder 180 7.3 Successional pathways on Rakata (a) Casualina equisetifolia woodland (b) Lowland Neonauclea calycina forest (c) Lowland Ficus pubinervis—Neonauclea calycina forest (d) Upland forest 183 7.4 Semi-permanent prairie wetland, Stutsman County, North Dakota 200 FIGURES 1.1 Breeding distribution of the ring ouzel 7 1.2 Tapirs: their origin, spread and present distribution 9 1.3 (a) Sclater and Wallace classification of faunal regions (b) Numerical classification of mammal
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