Biodiversity on Global Scales

A. Townsend Peterson

Conservation International Hotspots

Considerations• “Endemism”

• Diversity versus endemism– Different patterns

across geography

Global Tendencies

• High diversity at low latitudes, low diversity at high latitudes– Amazon versus Siberia

• High endemism in situations and regions of high subdivision and segregation of areas– Islands, mountains, restricted habitats

• Variation among continents, among major taxa, etc.

Null Hypotheses vs Full Understanding

• Null hypotheses– Mid-domain effect– Neutral theory

Null Hypotheses vs Full UnderstandingEnergy, time,

space, nutrients … simulated by

climate, topography, soils, etc.

Rivers, mountains, deserts, forests,

plains, arid zones, wet zones,

Point of origin, areas of

diversification, length of time in

region

• Null hypotheses– Mid-domain effect– Neutral theory

• Full understanding– Ecology– Geography– History

This Course

• Methodology for objective analysis of biodiversity patterns

• Superadvantage of working species by species, rather than on aggregates

• Advantage of working based on relatively small amounts of easily available information

• Interfaces well with new, large-scale biodiversity information networks

• Useful additional tool to complement other approaches