Plant Biogeography Pat Lu-Irving; Biol 317

July 11, 2012

What is Biogeography?

The study of geographical distributions of organisms, both past and present

Documenting and investigating spatial and temporal patterns of biological diversity

How does biodiversity vary over the surface of the Earth?

The age of European exploration

What is Biogeography?

Ortelius’ world map, 1564

Jean Louis Leclerc (Comte de Buffon)

Karl von Linne (Carolus Linnaeus)

Alexander von Humboldt

What is Biogeography?

Linnaeus: dispersal from a center of origin

Buffon: regions of similar climate contain distinct assemblages of species (Buffon’s Law); species and climates change as organisms disperse

Humboldt: relationship between Earth history and the present and past distributions of plants

de Candolle: distinction between ecological and historical processes determining plant assemblages

Augustin P. de Candolle

Patterns of geographic variation in nature

What are the processes which result in these patterns?

Biotic assemblages vary according to climate and environment;

Environmentally similar regions that are isolated from one another have distinct biotic assemblages (Buffon’s Law)

Ecological Biogeography

Historical Biogeography

What is Biogeography?

Maple Cherry Wattle

Rhododendron Dahlia

Iris

Protea Peony

Orchid

Washington state (USA), China, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, France, Japan, South Africa, Canada

Orchid (Laelia purpurata): Brazil

Protea (Protea cynaroides): South Africa

Wattle (Acacia pycnantha): Australia

Iris (Iris latifolia): France

Peony (Paeonia suffruticosa): China

Cherry (Prunus spp.): Japan

Maple (Acer saccharum): Canada

Dahlia (Dahlia pinnata): Mexico

Rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum): WA

Wattle Maple

Cherry Iris Dahlia Rhododendron Protea Peony

Orchid

Global plant diversity

WA plant biogeography

Ecological Biogeography

Short timescales, functional groups (communities), environmental constraints (niches)

How does the environment influence plant assemblages?

WA ecological biogeography

Spokane

Ellensburg Mt. Rainier

Steven’s Pass

Snoqualmie Pass Tacoma

Washington state

Google Earth

WA ecological biogeography

Alpine and subalpine: high elevation, short, cool growing

season

Shrub-steppe: sagebrush, low rainfall

Temperate rainforest: epiphytes, >2m of rainfall per year

Montane and lowland forest: forest canopy, med-low elevation, med-long growing season

WA ecological biogeography

Mean annual precipitation

NOAA Satellite and Information service 1961 - 1990

Minimum winter temperature

NOAA Satellite and Information service 1961 - 1990

Maximum summer temperature

NOAA Satellite and Information service 1961 - 1990

Shrub-steppe Lowland and montane forest

Google Earth

Alpine

Alpine Rainforest

Rainforest

WA ecological biogeography

Historical Biogeography

Long timescale, taxonomic groups (clades), biogeographic events

How do patterns in geographic distributions arise?

WA historical biogeography

Dispersal and vicariance A B C

A

B

C

A

B

C Dispersal

Vicariance

WA historical biogeography

Mesic coniferous forest of the Pacific Northwest

Climax Tsuga heterophylla and Thuja plicata; ‘cedar-hemlock’ zone

Western slopes of the Cascades, narrow band on the east, northern Rockies to Clearwater

Disjunction between same spp. In the Cascades (coast) and Rockies (inland)

WA historical biogeography

Google Earth

WA historical biogeography

Cascades

Rockies

Salix melanopsis Pinus albicaulis

Sullivan lab, U Idaho

WA historical biogeography

Dispersal or vicariance?

Dispersal

Rockies to Cascades via a northern route

Carstens et al, 2005

WA historical biogeography

Patterns in the geographic distributions of different kinds of organisms;

The processes behind those patterns:

Ecological biogeography Historical biogeography

Summary

Proof illustration entitled Characteristic Mammals of a Canadian Forest for Wallace's book The Geographical Distribution of Animals, dated 1876. British Natural History Museum.

Lomolino MV, Riddle BR, Brown JH, 2006. Biogeography (3rd Ed.) Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

Barthlott W, Mutke J, Rafiqpoor MD, Kier G, Kreft H, 2005. Global centers of vascular plant diversity. Nova Acta Leopoldina 92: 61-83.

NOAA Satellite and Information Service http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/ Giblin, D et al. Floristic studies on the San Juan Islands. Unpublished data. National park service. http://www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/temperate-rain-forests.htm Washington Native Plant Society. http://www.wnps.org/ecosystems/eco_system_home.htm Brunsfeld SJ, Sullivan J, Soltis DE, Soltis PS, 2001. Comparative phylogeography of Northwestern

North America: a synthesis. In: Integrating ecological and evolutionary processes in a spatial context, Blackwell Science, Oxford.

Nielson M, Lohman K, Sullivan J, 2001. Phylogeography of the tailed frog (Ascaphus truei): implications for the biogeography of the Pacific Northwest. Evolution 55(1): 147-160

Brunsfeld SJ, Miller TR, Carstens, BC, 2007. Insights into the biogeography of the Pacific Northwest of North America: evidence from the phylogeography of Salix melanopsis. Systematic Botany 32(1) 129-139

MacArthur RH, Wilson EO, 1967. The Theory of Island Biogeography. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

British Natural History Museum. http://www.naturalhistorymuseum.ac.uk/nature-online/collections-at-the-museum/wallace-collection/item.jsp?itemID=115&theme=Naturalist