Symposium summary: Mediterranean biogeography: where history meets ecology across scales

Abstract

news and update ISSN 1948‐6596 the intrinsic relationship between both disciplines and have shown how they are, indeed, two lenses in one telescope. Fabricio Villalobos 1 & Omid Paknia 2 1.Centro de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico. e‐mail: fabricio.villalobos@gmail.com 2.Institute for Experimental Ecology, University of Ulm, Germany References Ricklefs, R.E. & Schluter, D., eds. (1993) Species Diver‐ sity in Ecological Communities: Historical and Geographical Perspectives. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. Wiens, J.A. (1989) Spatial scaling in ecology. Functional Ecology, 3, 385– 397. Wiens, J.J. & Donoghue, M.J. (2004) Historical biogeog‐ raphy, ecology and species richness. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 19, 639‐644. Edited by Matthew J. Heard symposium summary Mediterranean biogeography: where history meets ecology across scales A symposium at the 5th International Biogeography Society Conference – Heraklion, Greece, 7– 11 January 2011 The Mediterranean Basin looks almost designed as a model system for biogeographical research. It is a semi‐closed sea offering coast to three conti‐ nents and 24 countries, with a marine surface area of some 2,500,000 km 2 , a maximum depth of 5,121 m, and a coastline of 46,500 km. 24,600 km of this coastline belong to the 11,879 Mediterra‐ nean islands, 243 of which host permanent human populations. Even though there has been some disagreement on the precise definition of what constitutes the terrestrial Mediterranean Region, the dominant view includes some 2,300,000 km 2 of land around the basin (Blondel et al. 2010). An important aspect of the Mediterranean Region is its long history of human presence that spans several millennia, with agriculture being practiced in the region for approximately 10,000 years, and the sequential rise and fall of many im‐ portant civilizations, especially during the past 5,000 years. Another crucial feature is the inten‐ sive tectonic activity caused by the subsidence of the African plate beneath the European plate, and the strong east‐west pressures to Asia Minor ex‐ erted by the Arabian plate. The palaeogeography of the Mediterranean Region is also complex, and highly marked by the Messinian Salinity Crisis. During this key event the Gibraltar strait closed and the Mediterranean Sea was reduced to a se‐ ries of saline lakes for some 630,000 years (5.96‐ 5.33 Ma), leading to large‐scale changes in both marine and terrestrial biota. The unique combina‐ tion of geological and climatic factors has led to the development of a characteristic and highly diverse biota, as reflected by the inclusion of the Mediterranean among the most important biodi‐ versity hotspots. The vast biotic diversity and the complexity of processes shaping Mediterranean biodiversity are reflected also in the diversity of approaches to the biogeography of the region, a small sample of which were covered in this Sym‐ posium. Hans Peter Comes from the Paris‐Lodron University of Salzburg (Austria) explored processes of plant speciation in the Mediterranean, con‐ trasting patterns of adaptive and non‐adaptive radiations. Ecological speciation plays an impor‐ tant role in Mediterranean plant radiations, both old and young, with radiation often accompanied by niche differentiation amongst lineage mem‐ bers. Nevertheless, at least one case of purported ‘non‐adaptive radiation’ in plants has been sug‐ gested, with mutation and genetic drift being the primary factors causing divergence of populations occupying ecologically similar habitats: the Nigella frontiers of biogeography 3.1, 2011 — © 2011 the authors; journal compilation © 2011 The International Biogeography Society