Biogeographic Changes Research Articles

A Landscape in Transition: The Arbuckle Mountains, 1870 to 1898

An understanding of the contemporary biogeography of a region must be predicated not only on the current environmental conditions that influence species distributions but also on historical factors including anthropogenic disturbance regimes. Increasingly, researchers are using historical data, such as the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) records, to create baselines from which subsequent biogeographic changes can be gauged. The present-day state of Oklahoma is unique in that two separate PLSS surveys were conducted in the state during a relatively short time span. We compare these two historical data sets, from the 1870s and 1890s, respectively, to quantify changes in landscape structure and woody plant assemblages corresponding to rapid demographic changes occurring within the Arbuckle Mountains in Oklahoma. During this period, the PLSS data show a landscape that became increasingly fragmented, as well as differences in stand composition and density. The documentation of these important historical anthropogenic changes occurring on the western fringes of the eastern deciduous forest could serve as a valuable guide for conservation and restoration initiatives.

From forest fires to fisheries management: Anthropology, conservation biology, and historical ecology

Human-environmental relationships have long been of interest to a variety of scientists, including ecologists, biologists, anthropologists, and many others. In anthropology, this interest was especially prevalent among cultural ecologists of the 1970s and earlier, who tended to explain culture as the result of techno-environmental constraints. More recently researchers have used historical ecology, an approach that focuses on the long-term dialectical relationship between humans and their environments, as well as long-term prehuman ecological datasets. An important contribution of anthropology to historical ecology is that anthropological datasets dealing with ethnohistory, traditional ecological knowledge, and human skeletal analysis, as well as archeological datasets on faunal and floral remains, artifacts, geochemistry, and stratigraphic analysis, provide a deep time perspective (across decades, centuries, and millennia) on the evolution of ecosystems and the place of people in those larger systems. Historical ecological data also have an applied component that can provide important information on the relative abundances of flora and fauna, changes in biogeography, alternations in food webs, landscape evolution, and much more.

Biogeography and host‐related factors trump parasite life history: limited congruence among the genetic structures of specific ectoparasitic lice and their rodent hosts

Parasites and hosts interact across both micro- and macroevolutionary scales where congruence among their phylogeographic and phylogenetic structures may be observed. Within southern Africa, the four-striped mouse genus, Rhabdomys, is parasitized by the ectoparasitic sucking louse, Polyplax arvicanthis. Molecular data recently suggested the presence of two cryptic species within P.arvicanthis that are sympatrically distributed across the distributions of four putative Rhabdomys species. We tested the hypotheses of phylogeographic congruence and cophylogeny among the two parasite lineages and the four host taxa, utilizing mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data. Despite the documented host-specificity of P.arvicanthis, limited phylogeographic correspondence and nonsignificant cophylogeny was observed. Instead, the parasite-host evolutionary history is characterized by limited codivergence and several duplication, sorting and host-switching events. Despite the elevated mutational rates found for P.arvicanthis, the spatial genetic structure was not more pronounced in the parasite lineages compared with the hosts. These findings may be partly attributed to larger effective population sizes of the parasite lineages, the vagility and social behaviour of Rhabdomys, and the lack of host-specificity observed in areas of host sympatry. Further, the patterns of genetic divergence within parasite and host lineages may also be largely attributed to historical biogeographic changes (expansion-contraction cycles). It is thus evident that the association between P.arvicanthis and Rhabdomys has been shaped by the synergistic effects of parasite traits, host-related factors and biogeography over evolutionary time.

Bayesian Analysis of Biogeography when the Number of Areas is Large

Historical biogeography is increasingly studied from an explicitly statistical perspective, using stochastic models to describe the evolution of species range as a continuous-time Markov process of dispersal between and extinction within a set of discrete geographic areas. The main constraint of these methods is the computational limit on the number of areas that can be specified. We propose a Bayesian approach for inferring biogeographic history that extends the application of biogeographic models to the analysis of more realistic problems that involve a large number of areas. Our solution is based on a "data-augmentation" approach, in which we first populate the tree with a history of biogeographic events that is consistent with the observed species ranges at the tips of the tree. We then calculate the likelihood of a given history by adopting a mechanistic interpretation of the instantaneous-rate matrix, which specifies both the exponential waiting times between biogeographic events and the relative probabilities of each biogeographic change. We develop this approach in a Bayesian framework, marginalizing over all possible biogeographic histories using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). Besides dramatically increasing the number of areas that can be accommodated in a biogeographic analysis, our method allows the parameters of a given biogeographic model to be estimated and different biogeographic models to be objectively compared. Our approach is implemented in the program, BayArea.

Representation of natural and anthropogenic land cover change in MPI‐ESM

The purpose of this paper is to give a rather comprehensive description of the models for natural and anthropogenically driven changes in biogeography as implemented in the land component JSBACH of the Max Planck Institute Earth system model (MPI‐ESM). The model for natural land cover change (DYNVEG) features two types of competition: between the classes of grasses and woody types (trees, shrubs) controlled by disturbances (fire, windthrow) and within those vegetation classes between different plant functional types based on relative net primary productivity advantages. As part of this model, the distribution of land unhospitable to vegetation (hot and cold deserts) is determined dynamically from plant productivity under the prevailing climate conditions. The model for anthropogenic land cover change implements the land use transition approach by Hurtt et al. (2006). Our implementation is based on the assumption that historically pastures have been preferentially established on former grasslands (“pasture rule”). We demonstrate that due to the pasture rule, deforestation reduces global forest area between 1850 and 2005 by 15% less than without. Because of the pasture rule the land cover distribution depends on the full history of land use transitions. This has implications for the dynamics of natural land cover change because assumptions must be made on how agriculturalists react to a changing natural vegetation in their environment. A separate model representing this process has been developed so that natural and anthropogenic land cover change can be simulated consistently. Certain aspects of our model implementation are illustrated by selected results from the recent CMIP5 simulations.

Marine Phytoplankton Temperature versus Growth Responses from Polar to Tropical Waters – Outcome of a Scientific Community-Wide Study

“It takes a village to finish (marine) science these days” Paraphrased from Curtis Huttenhower (the Human Microbiome project) The rapidity and complexity of climate change and its potential effects on ocean biota are challenging how ocean scientists conduct research. One way in which we can begin to better tackle these challenges is to conduct community-wide scientific studies. This study provides physiological datasets fundamental to understanding functional responses of phytoplankton growth rates to temperature. While physiological experiments are not new, our experiments were conducted in many laboratories using agreed upon protocols and 25 strains of eukaryotic and prokaryotic phytoplankton isolated across a wide range of marine environments from polar to tropical, and from nearshore waters to the open ocean. This community-wide approach provides both comprehensive and internally consistent datasets produced over considerably shorter time scales than conventional individual and often uncoordinated lab efforts. Such datasets can be used to parameterise global ocean model projections of environmental change and to provide initial insights into the magnitude of regional biogeographic change in ocean biota in the coming decades. Here, we compare our datasets with a compilation of literature data on phytoplankton growth responses to temperature. A comparison with prior published data suggests that the optimal temperatures of individual species and, to a lesser degree, thermal niches were similar across studies. However, a comparison of the maximum growth rate across studies revealed significant departures between this and previously collected datasets, which may be due to differences in the cultured isolates, temporal changes in the clonal isolates in cultures, and/or differences in culture conditions. Such methodological differences mean that using particular trait measurements from the prior literature might introduce unknown errors and bias into modelling projections. Using our community-wide approach we can reduce such protocol-driven variability in culture studies, and can begin to address more complex issues such as the effect of multiple environmental drivers on ocean biota.

Conceptual models of the processes and patterns of the ecological, evolutionary and bio-geographical consequences of global climate changes

A unifying conceptual model is constructed for the major effects of alternating periods of global warming and cooling and sea-level changes on the geographical distributions and the ecological and genetic characteristics of species and ecological communities. The main results found are: The species in the interior of continuous global latitude and altitude temperature gradients are expected to follow the moving temperature zones without any major extinctions or any major changes in their physiological and ecological characteristics and adaptive roles during both global warming and global cooling periods, with competitive replacement of resident species by zonally dispersing pre-adapted species. Many or all of the existing species at all the global cold boundary zones of both latitude and altitude temperature gradients are expected to become extinct during periods of global warming, which would be caused by competitive displacement by immigrating pre-adapted species from adjacent warmer zones. Most existing species in the warm boundary zones of all the global temperature gradients are predicted to persist and adapt without competition to the increased temperature during periods of global warming, and to diversify by adaptations to newly created ecological opportunities. Periods of global cooling are predicted to cause analogous opposite effects to the effects of global warming in the cold and warm boundaries of temperature gradients: that is, extinctions at the warm boundaries and persistence and adaptations at the cold boundaries: Existing species in all islands and island-like isolated areas are predicted to persist in the absence of competitive displacement by immigrating pre-adapted species, and gradually adapt to the changing temperatures during periods of both global warming and global cooling. During periods of global cooling, many more diverse opportunities for new adaptations and for invasions by pre-adapted species are expected and predicted in the large diversity of the newly open heterogeneous coldest and highest altitude zones of all the global altitude temperature gradients. Long-term sequences of alternating periods of global warming and global cooling are expected to cancel and eliminate most of the ecological and adaptive changes which have occurred during the previous periods at all the latitude and altitude boundary zones. The species at the interior of continuous temperature gradients are expected to persist unchanged over long evolutionary time during repeated sequences of alternating periods of global warming and global cooling. The effects of higher and lower global sea levels on the sea shore and intertidal species and communities during periods of global warming or cooling are expected to be analogous to the bio-geographical, ecological and genetic changes caused or predicted by global warming or cooling in the species and communities in terrestrial or marine temperature gradients. Global sea-level changes which cause higher or lower shifting of the levels of the ecological zones in continuous sea shore gradients are expected therefore to cause continuous tracking and moving of the populations of the unchanged zonally adapted species. On the other hand, zonally adapted sea shore species are expected to be displaced or become extinct during periods of sea-level changes at the higher or lower boundary zones of the sea-level gradients in semi-isolated marine basins, and in locally discontinuous, fragmented or truncated sea shore ecological gradients.

Relationships among vegetation, geomorphology and hydrology in the Bananal Island tropical wetlands, Araguaia River basin, Central Brazil

The Bananal Plain spreading on the Middle Araguaia River basin in Central Brazil at the Cerrado–Amazonia ecotone is a unique system that sustains the largest seasonal wetlands of the Cerrado biome. The huge Bananal Plain is an intracratonic sedimentary basin filled with Pleistocene sediments of the Araguaia formation. Covering approximately two million hectares, the Bananal Island is a major geomorphologic feature of the Bananal plain. Fieldwork and the analysis of a temporal series of MODIS–VI and Landsat ETM images allowed us to discriminate Cerrado phyto-physiognomies on the Bananal Island. Maps of vegetation and geomorphologic units were created, and from the correlation between landforms and vegetation types we identified morpho-vegetation units.Our approach allowed us to postulate that Pleistocene landforms strongly influence, if not dominate, the distribution of vegetation units.For example, the distribution of current gallery forest is not only controlled by active floodplains, but also by alluvial belts abandoned by avulsion. Additionally, arboreal Cerrado vegetation is supported by laterite developed on the sediments of the Araguaia Formation. Some of these inactive landforms are in part modified by the present day geomorphologic processes and colonized by successional vegetation that varies from alluvial forest to Cerrado.Characterized by a very flat landscape with a hindered drainage, the muddy sediments of the Araguaia Formation and the high seasonal rainfall favor the development of regional seasonal wetlands.The Bananal plain is a key area for understanding the Quaternary climatic and biogeographic changes in tropical South America. The control exerted by relict Quaternary landforms on the current vegetation units demonstrates the strong links between geomorphologic aspects of the landscape and ecological patterns. This multidisciplinary approach provides a better understanding of the biogeographic patterns in the Cerrado–Amazon ecotone, which is useful for identifying and designing areas for conservation.

Conference program and abstracts. International Biogeography Society 6th Biennial Meeting – 9-13 January 2013, Miami, Florida, USA

Proceedings of the Sixth biennial conference of the International Biogeography Society, an international and interdisciplinary society contributing to the advancement of all studies of the geography of nature. Held at Miami, Florida, USA, 9 – 13 January 2013.Abstracts include:(i) the Opening, MacArthur & Wilson Award and Alfred Russel Award Plenary Lectures;(ii) four symposia entitled "Island Biogeography: New Syntheses", "Beyond Bergmann: New perspectives on the biogeography of traits", "The Convergence of Conservation Paleontology and Biogeography" and "Predicting species and biodiversity in a warmer world: are we doing a good job?";(iii) oral presentations from contributed papers on Phylogeography, Marine Biogeography, Biogeography of the Anthropocene, Hot Topics in biogeography, Island Biogeography, Neotropical Biogeography, Global Change Biogeography, Historical and Paleo-biogeography, Conservation Biogeography and Global-Scale Biogeography; and(iv) contributions presented as posters on Phylogeography, Geospatial techniques and land cover, Biodiversity gradients and macroecology, Biogeography of traits, Island Biogeography, Neotropical Biogeography, Conservation Biogeography, Disturbance and Disease Biogeography, Climate Change Biogeography and Historical and Paleo-Biogeography.

Long-term responses of North Atlantic calcifying plankton to climate change

Climate change is threatening marine biodiversity in two ways—temperature increases and acidification. This study demonstrates that from 1960 to 2009 North Atlantic calcifying plankton primarily responded to temperature changes. Plankton communities showed an abrupt shift circa 1996, a time of a substantial temperature increase, and some taxa exhibited a poleward movement in agreement with expected biogeographical changes under ocean warming. Although acidification may become a serious threat to marine calcifiers, over the study period the primary driver of spatial distribution was ocean temperature.

ADAPTIVE RADIATION DRIVEN BY THE INTERPLAY OF ECO-EVOLUTIONARY AND LANDSCAPE DYNAMICS

We investigate an individual-based model of adaptive radiation based on the biogeographical changes of the Great African Lakes where cichlid fishes radiated. In our model, the landscape consists of a mosaic of three habitat types which may or may not be separated by geographic barriers. We study the effect of the alternation between allopatry and sympatry called landscape dynamics. We show that landscape dynamics can generate a significantly higher diversity than allopatric or sympatric speciation alone. Diversification is mainly due to the joint action of allopatric, ecological divergence, and of disruptive selection increasing assortative mating and allowing for the coexistence in sympatry of species following reinforcement or character displacement. Landscape dynamics possibly increase diversity at each landscape change. The characteristics of the radiation depend on the speed of landscape dynamics and of the number of geographically isolated regions at steady state. Under fast dynamics of a landscape with many fragments, the model predicts a high diversity, possibly subject to the temporary collapse of all species into a hybrid swarm. When fast landscape dynamics induce the recurrent fusion of several sites, diversity is moderate but very stable over time. Under slow landscape dynamics, diversification proceeds similarly, although at a slower pace.

Projected climate change and the changing biogeography of coastal Mediterranean fishes

AbstractAimTo forecast the potential effects of climate change in the Mediterranean Sea on the species richness and mean body size of coastal fish assemblages.LocationThe Mediterranean Sea.MethodsUsing an ensemble forecasting approach, we used species distribution modelling to project the potential distribution of 288 coastal fish species by the middle and end of the 21st century based on the IPCC A2 scenario implemented with the Mediterranean climatic model NEMOMED8.ResultsA mean rise of 1.4 °C was projected for the Mediterranean Sea by the middle of the 21st century and 2.8 °C by the end of the 21st century. Projections for the end of the century suggest that: (1) 54 species are expected to lose their climatically suitable habitat, (2) species richness was predicted to decrease across 70.4% of the continental shelf area, especially in the western Mediterranean Sea and several parts of the Aegean Sea, and (3) mean fish body size would increase over 74.8% of the continental shelf area. Small‐bodied species that are not targeted by either commercial or recreational fleets presented, on average, the highest predicted decrease in geographic range size.Main conclusionsProjected climate change in the Mediterranean Sea may have deleterious effects on coastal fish diversity, including a significant loss of climatically suitable habitat for endemic fish species. In addition, climate change may contribute to the loss of small and low trophic‐level fishes, which may have ecosystem‐wide impacts by reducing food supply to larger and higher trophic‐level species. Fishing pressure is already selectively removing large‐bodied species from marine ecosystems, and so fishing and climatic change might act in tandem to drive both direct and secondary extinctions.

White croaker (Micropogonias furnieri) paleodistribution in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. An archaeological perspective

This paper presents strong and well dated evidence of the presence of Micropogonias furnieri in areas that are currently out of distribution. This evidence comes from hunter–gatherer archaeological sites along the north Patagonian coast (Argentina). Our results allow us to determine a change in the spatial distribution of M. furnieri during the Holocene, which are possibly linked to biogeographic changes in a set of species at regional level. Finally we discuss the potential for archaeological evidence in the service of spatial and biogeographic studies of different species.

From the society: Registration is now open for the 5th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society (Heraklion, Crete, Greece; 7-11 January 2011)

ISSN 1948-6596 from the society Registration is now open for the 5th Biennial Conference of the Interna- tional Biogeography Society (Heraklion, Crete, Greece; 7-11 January The International Biogeography Society’s biennial conference is coming up this January 7-11 th in Crete. Registration fees are currently set at 350 USD (150 USD for students), but will rise to 420 USD (190 USD for students) on November 1 st . Register now to take advantage of the lower rates and availability of workshops. Note that you need to be a member of IBS in order to register and attend the meeting. Symposia and contributions The meeting is built around four successive sym- posia (8th & 9th January) on broad foundational and cutting-edge topics and approaches in biogeography and macroecology, each with a suite of leading international scientists and open- ings for contributed papers: 1. Mediterranean biogeography: where history meets ecology across scales (organizers: Spyros Sfenthourakis & Remy Petit). The Mediterranean is a highly species-rich and complex biogeographic region. It has a complex tectonic and environ- mental history, hosts numerous islands, exhibits strong topographic diversity, and has experienced the impacts of human civilization for more than 8 millennia. This symposium explores novel per- spectives on Mediterranean biogeography across spatial and temporal scales. 2. Comparative phylogeography: novel integrative approaches and challenges (organizers: Ana Car- naval & Mike Hickerson). This symposium will ex- plore how innovative, integrative studies are ex- panding the boundaries of classic comparative phylogeography, while discussing novel methodo- logical alternatives to circumvent current and foreseen challenges in the field. Among the topics covered are new insights into suture zones and island community assembly and novel approaches employing genomics, spatial information systems, climate modeling, community-scale DNA barcod- ing, etc. 3. Biogeography and ecology: two lenses in one telescope (organizers: Dave Jenkins & Bob Rick- lefs). Biogeography focuses on large scales, while much of ecology uses the opposite end of the telescope to focus on many of the same patterns and processes at small scales. Despite historical separation, each discipline is now expanding its spatial and temporal scales towards the other: this symposium will match a biogeographer and an ecologist on each of four key topics of shared interest (niche, comparative/macro-ecology, com- munity assembly, and diversity) to seek alignment of the two perspectives. 4. Analytical advancements in macroecology and biogeography (organizers: Alexandre Diniz-Filho & Carsten Rahbek). The continuous development of computing capacity and increasing data genera- tion allow ever more sophisticated analyses, ena- bling novel insights about biodiversity patterns. This development depends upon continuous input from other fields in terms of methods and theory. This symposium presents new advancements in spatial analyses, phylogenetic reconstruction, and computer simulation modelling. The meeting also has six sessions of contributed papers (10th January) on key topics: i. Island biogeography ii. Climate change biogeography iii. Conservation biogeography iv. Palaeoecology v. Marine biogeography vi. Hot topics in biogeography - Submission of Abstracts for posters, contributed papers, and symposium speakers. The Abstract deadline is 15 November 2010 for invited speak- ers, posters, and contributed papers. There will be 270 available openings for posters, 6 openings for symposia presentations, and 36 openings for con- tributed talks. Please register early as availability © 2010 the authors; journal compilation © 2010 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 2.3, 2010

From the society: News from the January IBS meeting in Crete

membership corner ISSN 1948-6596 from the society News from the January IBS meeting in Crete The 5th Biennial Meeting of the International Bio- geography Society is now less than one year away. The meeting will be held in Irakleion, Crete, on the finally agreed dates of 7-11 January, 2011. The meeting will be built around four suc- cessive symposia (8-9 January) on established key and new cutting-edge topics and approaches in biogeography and macroecology, each with a suite of leading international scientists as well as openings for contributed papers: (1) Mediterranean Biogeography: Where History Meets Ecology Across Scales, organized by Spyros Sfenthourakis and Remy J. Petit The Mediterranean is a highly species-rich and complex biogeographic region. It has a composite tectonic history, has experienced the impacts of human civilization for more than 8 millennia, hosts numerous islands, and exhibits remarkable topographic diversity. This symposium explores novel perspectives on Mediterranean biogeogra- phy across spatial and temporal scales. (2) New Perspectives on Comparative Phy- logeography – Novel Integrative Approaches and Challenges, organized by Ana Carnaval and Mike Hickerson The boundaries of classic comparative phy- logeography are expanding by increasing connec- tions with new and emerging fields such as ge- nomics, spatial information systems, climate mod- eling, community-scale DNA barcoding, host– parasite interactions etc. This symposium will ex- plore innovative, integrative studies in the field, while discussing novel methodologies to circum- vent current and foreseen challenges. (3) Biogeography and Ecology: Two Lenses in One Telescope, organized by Dave Jenkins and Bob Ricklefs Biogeography views nature through a large-scale lens, while ecology views nature through a lens built from local-scale evidence. Yet both disci- plines focus on processes causing natural patterns and are approaching each other at intermediate spatial and temporal scales. The symposium brings together biogeographers and ecologists to discuss the shared key subjects: niche, compara- tive/macro-ecology, community assembly, and diversity. Different and shared conceptual do- mains will be addressed within and among eight talks (two per subject), plus a synthesis. (4) Analytical Advancements in Macroecology and Biogeography, organized by Alexandre Diniz- Filho and Carsten Rahbek The continuous development of computing capac- ity and increasing data generation allow ever more sophisticated analyses, enabling novel in- sights about biodiversity patterns. This develop- ment depends upon continuous input from other fields in terms of methods and theory. This sym- posium presents the new advancements within spatial analyses, phylogenetic reconstruction, and computer simulation modeling. In addition to the four symposia with in- vited speakers, on January 10th the meeting will have six sessions of contributed papers on core topics in biogeography: (i) Island biogeography, (ii) Climate change biogeography, (iii) Conservation biogeography, (iv) Palaeoecology, (v) Marine bio- geography, and (vii) Hot topics in Biogeography. On the days just before and after the con- ference (7 and 11 January), there will be field ex- cursions to a number of Crete’s most exciting loca- tions, historically and biologically (and biogeo- graphically). In addition, on January 7th, a series of workshops will be held, covering spatial analy- sis in macroecology, phylogenetic analysis in macro-ecology, and communicating biogeogra- phy. The registration for the meeting will open in June 2010. For more updated information, please check http://www.biogeography. org/html/ Meetings/2011/index.html. Jens-Christian Svenning V. P. for Conferences Spyros Sfenthourakis Local Organizing Committee of the 2011 IBS meeting Did you know that any member who has retired and who has twenty years of continuous membership in IBS shall be eligible for Emeritus membership? frontiers of biogeography 2.1, 2010 — © 2010 the authors; journal compilation © 2010 The International Biogeography Society

From the members: On the biogeography of biogeographers

membership corner ISSN 1948‐6596 from the members On the biogeography of biogeographers Biogeography is concerned with “the study at all possible scales of analysis of the distribution of life across space, and how, through time, it has changed” (Whittaker et al. 2005). It is a long es‐ tablished field of research, with its roots in the early nineteenth century. Recently, the fifth IBS International Meeting was held in Irakleion, Crete, where the latest scientific research in relation to biogeography was presented by biogeographers from around the world. The list of topics covered in this conference was comprehensive: there were four symposia covering Mediterranean biogeogra‐ phy, comparative phylogeography, biogeography and ecology, and analytical advancements in mac‐ roecology and biogeography; and six sessions with contributed papers on island biogeography, cli‐ mate change biogeography, conservation biogeog‐ raphy, palaeoecology, marine biogeography and hot topics in biogeography. Overall, there were 63 talks and 271 poster presentations covering a wide range of biogeographical topics. However I noticed that the geographical origin of the attendees of the conference was less diverse: the majority were from the US and Europe and I was surprised to see only a few re‐ searchers from South America and Asia and practi‐ cally none from Africa. In a relatively advanced field such as biogeography, concerned with distri‐ bution patterns, I found it slightly ironic that the diversity of the biogeographers at this meeting was relatively low. Out of the total of 334 contri‐ butions at the meeting, nearly 60 percent of the authors came from a European institution and 26 percent from North American ones, whereas 7 percent of the first authors came from Central and South America, just about 5 percent from Asia, 2 percent from Oceania, and only 0.3 percent from Africa. So I wondered: where were our colleagues from these regions? I wanted to know whether the low propor‐ tion of researchers from outside of Europe and North America at the IBS meeting is representa‐ tive for the wider academic biogeography commu‐ nity, so I investigated recent contributions pub‐ lished in the four main biogeography journals. I looked up all articles published during 2010 in Journal of Biogeography, Global Ecology and Bio‐ geography, Diversity and Distributions and Ecogra‐ phy, and counted and classified them into six geo‐ graphical regions according to the United Nations Statistics Division (2010) composition of macro‐ geographical regions based on the first mentioned affiliation of the first author of the paper. I consid‐ ered a total of 490 papers in these four journals and found that 45 percent had a first author affili‐ ated with an institution in Europe, 29 percent had a first author from North America, nearly 13 per‐ cent from Oceania, just about 5 percent from Asia, 4 percent from Central and South America, and only 4 percent from Africa. The fact that the proportion of Europeans was relatively high at the conference is logical since the conference was being held in Europe and thus easier to attend for researchers based in this part of the world. The opposite is true for bio‐ geographers from Oceania, who were underrepre‐ sented, probably because of the large distance they had to travel to attend the conference. How‐ ever, considering these minor differences, the geographical distribution of the biogeographers attending the conference seems to correspond with the distribution of those publishing in the four journals. Thus, it would be fair to say that the biogeographers at the IBS meeting were fairly rep‐ resentative of the wider publishing biogeography community in terms of their geographical origin. There are of course various factors contrib‐ uting to the observed patterns, and I will refrain from attempting to explain them. Moreover, the manner in which I classified the publications does not acknowledge the contribution from co‐ authors affiliated with institutions outside of Europe and North America, which is likely to hide a wider international participation. Nevertheless, it is interesting to be aware of the geographical distribution of biogeography researchers and en‐ courage further participation and contributions from underrepresented regions. For example, it frontiers of biogeography 3.1, 2011 — © 2011 the authors; journal compilation © 2011 The International Biogeography Society

Symposium summary: Climate change biogeography

ISSN 1948‐6596 news and update Graham, C.H., Parra, J.L., Rahbek, C. & Mcguire, J.A. (2009). Phylogenetic structure in tropical hum‐ mingbird communities. Proceedings of the Na‐ tional Academy of Sciences, 106, 19673‐19678. Hoorn, C., Wesselingh, F.P., Ter Steege, H., Bermudez, M.A., Mora, A., Sevink, J., Sanmartin, I., Sanchez‐ Meseguer, A., Anderson, C.L., Figueiredo, J.P., Jaramillo, C., Riff, D., Negri, F.R., Hooghiemstra, H., Lundberg, J., Stadler, T., Sarkinen, T. & An‐ tonelli, A. (2010). Amazonia through time: An‐ dean uplift, climate change, landscape evolu‐ tion, and biodiversity. Science, 330, 927‐931. Sizling, A.L., Storch, D. & Keil, P. (2009). Rapoport's rule, species tolerances, and the latitudinal di‐ versity gradient: Geometric considerations. Ecol‐ ogy, 90, 3575‐3586. Stevens, G.C. (1989). The latitudinal gradient in geo‐ graphic range: How so many species coexist in the tropics. American Naturalist, 133, 240‐256. Webb, C.O., Ackerly, D.D., Mcpeek, M.A. & Donoghue, M.J. (2002). Phylogenies and community ecol‐ ogy. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Edited by Matthew J. Heard symposium summary Climate change biogeography A contributed session at the 5th International Biogeography Society Conference – Heraklion, Greece, 7–11 January 2011 Anthropogenic climate change and its realized and potential impacts on biodiversity represent the kind of large‐scale complex phenomena for which the integrative broad‐scale view of biogeography is especially useful. This was well exemplified at the 5 th IBS conference’s contributed papers ses‐ sion on “climate change biogeography”. Earth’s climate has exhibited marked changes and fluc‐ tuations in the past, and several studies (B. Sandel et al., Aarhus University; G. Rodriguez‐Castaneda et al., Umea University) provided deep‐time per‐ spectives on climate‐change impacts on biodiver‐ sity, showing that the location and extent of long‐ term climatically stable areas have left strong im‐ prints in current large‐scale species diversity pat‐ terns. An important implication of these studies is that much species diversity may depend on cli‐ matic stability. Linked to this several studies ad‐ dressed the complexity of ecological responses to current and expected climate change, showing that tree‐lines may recede despite a warming cli‐ mate, due to the interacting effects of fire and dispersal limitation (C.D. Brown and J.F. Johns‐ tone, University of Saskatchewan), and that differ‐ ent ecological groups of closely related species may exhibit deviating responses to climate change, e.g. due to differential dispersal abilities and contingent differential lags in their responses to climate change (C. Hof et al., University of Co‐ penhagen). Finally, several studies highlighted the potentially critical losses due to 21 st century cli‐ mate change of not just species diversity, but also of unique evolutionary lineages within species (E. Vazquez‐Dominguez et al., Universidad Autonoma de Mexico). Even more worrying is the risk of wholesale loss of biodiversity from Amazonia, one of Earth’s most biodiverse regions (K.J. Feeley et al., Florida International University). Together the studies presented not only illustrate how progress in our understanding of climate‐change impacts on biodiversity is being provided by biogeographi‐ cal research, but also illustrate how the field is rapidly advancing by creative development and application of sophisticated modeling approaches that integrate ecology, physical geography, and genetics. Jens‐Christian Svenning Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity Group, Aarhus University, Denmark. e‐mail: svenning@biology.au.dk Edited by Dan Gavin © 2011 the authors; journal compilation © 2011 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 3.1, 2011

From the society: The forthcoming 5th IBS International Meeting (Irakleion, Crete, Greece 7–11 January 2011) is almost here

membership corner ISSN 1948-6596 from the society The forthcoming 5th IBS International Meeting (Irakleion, Crete, Greece 7–11 January 2011) is almost here Two years after a successful meeting in Merida, Mexico, the 5 th biennial meeting of the Society is going to be held in Irakleion, Crete, Greece, from 7 th to 11th January 2011. Registration will open by the end of August, so start preparing your ab- stracts and your luggage for this journey to the southeastern corner of Europe. The meeting venue seems custom-made for biogeography, with its thousands of islands, the fragmented landscape, a geographic position on the border- line of three continents, and the long history of human activities. In addition, the historical signifi- cance and natural attractions of Greece, and Crete in particular, will be waiting for you, so there is no excuse to miss this meeting. The scientific part, as in all previous meet- ings, is more than appealing, with four main sym- posia taking place during two days of the meeting, and six sessions with contributed papers during the third day. The four symposia are: current and foreseen challenges in the field. Among the topics covered are new insights into suture zones and island community assembly and novel approaches employing genomics, spatial information systems, climate modeling, commu- nity-scale DNA barcoding, etc. 3. Biogeography and ecology: two lenses in one telescope (organizers: Dave Jenkins & Bob Rick- lefs). Biogeography focuses on large scales, while much of ecology uses the opposite end of the telescope to focus on many of the same patterns and processes at small scales. Despite historical separation, each discipline is now expanding its spatial and temporal scales towards the other: this symposium will match a biogeographer and an ecologist on each of four key topics of shared interest (niche, comparative/macro-ecology, com- munity assembly, and diversity) to seek alignment of the two perspectives. 1. Mediterranean biogeography: where history meets ecology across scales (organizers: Spyros Sfenthourakis & Remy Petit). The Mediterranean is a highly species-rich and complex biogeographic region. It has a complex tectonic and environ- mental history, hosts numerous islands, exhibits strong topographic diversity, and has experienced the impacts of human civilization for more than 8 millennia. This symposium explores novel per- spectives on Mediterranean biogeography across spatial and temporal scales. 4. Analytical advancements in macroecology and biogeography (organizers: Alexandre Diniz-Filho & Carsten Rahbek). The continuous development of computing capacity and increasing data genera- tion allow ever more sophisticated analyses, ena- bling novel insights about biodiversity patterns. This development depends upon continuous input from other fields in terms of methods and theory. This symposium presents new advancements in spatial analyses, phylogenetic reconstruction, and computer simulation modelling. 2. Comparative phylogeography: new perspec- tives, integrative approaches & challenges (organizers: Ana Carnaval & Mike Hickerson). This symposium will explore how innovative, integra- tive studies are expanding the boundaries of clas- sic comparative phylogeography, while discussing novel methodological alternatives to circumvent The contributed papers’ sessions will cover subjects like island biogeography, conservation biogeography, marine biogeography, climate change biogeography, palaeoecology, and other hot topics. Another important event will take place on the last day of the congress, when Bob Ricklefs You can find information about the International Biogeography Society at http:// www.biogeography.org/, and contact with other biogeographers at the IBS blog (http:// biogeography.blogspot.com/), the IBS facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php? gid=6908354463) and the IBS twitter channel (https://twitter.com/biogeography). © 2010 the authors; journal compilation © 2010 The International Biogeography Society — frontiers of biogeography 2.2, 2010

Symposium summary: Climate change biogeography

symposium summary: Climate change biogeography

What can DNA tell us about biological invasions?

It is often hoped that population genetics can answer questions about the demographic and geographic dynamics of recent biological invasions. Conversely, invasions with well-known histories are sometimes billed as opportunities to test methods of population genetic inference. In both cases, underappreciated limitations constrain the usefulness of genetic methods. The most significant is that human-caused invasions have occurred on historical timescales that are orders of magnitude smaller than the timescales of mutation and genetic drift for most multicellular organisms. Analyses based on the neutral theory of molecular evolution cannot resolve such rapid dynamics. Invasion histories cannot be reconstructed in the same way as biogeographic changes occurring over millenia. Analyses assuming equilibrium between mutation, drift, gene flow, and selection will rarely be applicable, and even methods designed for explicitly non-equilibrium questions often require longer timescales than the few generations of most invasions of current concern. We identified only a few population genetic questions that are tractable over such short timescales. These include comparison of alternative hypotheses for the geographic origin of an invasion, testing for bottlenecks, and hybridization between native and invasive species. When proposing population genetic analysis of a biological invasion, we recommend that biologists ask (i) whether the questions to be addressed will materially affect management practice or policy, and (ii) whether the proposed analyses can really be expected to address important population genetic questions. Despite our own enthusiasm for population genetic research, we conclude that genetic analysis of biological invasions is justified only under exceptional circumstances.