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Biogeography Final Exam with
complete solution 2026
Charles Darwin - ANSWERS-theory of evolution and natural selection Charles Lyell - ANSWERS-Earth must be older than assumed; relative ages of fossil fauna can be determined through stratigraphy/law of superposition Alfred Russell Wallace - ANSWERS-Independently came up with theory of natural selection and evolution similar to Darwin's; focused on biogeography G.G. Simpson - ANSWERS-coined term "actualism" used to avoid connotations associated with uniformitarianism to account for past, present and future distributions Actualism - ANSWERS-philosophical assumption that the physical processes now operating are timeless and therefore that the fundamental laws of nature have remained unchanged Alex van Humboldt - ANSWERS-described new species interested in describing environment, environmental change over space; study natural world to find relationship between geography, climate and vegetation Comte de Buffon - ANSWERS-flaws in Linneaus' argument: areas with similar climates inhabited by different species, and spread of life required migration across inhospitable landscapes, if species were not mutable would be able to cross over barriers; The Americas, Europe and Africa have matching coastlines Carolus Linneaus - ANSWERS-binomial nomenclature to describe God's creations, organisms could not evolve over time; paridiscial mountain Edward O. Wilson - ANSWERS-theory of island biogeography; stochastic, graphical and mathematical model of species turnover and richness; effects of area and location per se- not inherently ecological Robert MacArthur - ANSWERS-Theory of island biogeography; played an important role in the development of niche partitioning, and with EO Wilson co-authored theory of island biogeography
Eduardo Rappaport - ANSWERS-formulated the hypothesis that states that latitudinal ranges of plants and animals are generally smaller at lower than at high latitude; provided evidence for the phenomenon for subspecies of mammals; how greater species diversity in the tropics in the sense that latitudinal gradients in species diversity and the rule have identical Alfred Wegener - ANSWERS-theory of continental drift Milutin Milankovitch - ANSWERS-known for theory of ice ages, suggesting a relationship between Earth's long-term climate changes and periodic changes inits orbit, now known as Milankovitch cycles Buffon's Law - ANSWERS-environmentally similar but isolated regions have different assemblages of animals endemic - ANSWERS-occurring nowhere else, restricted to a specific geographic area cosmopolitan - ANSWERS-very widely distributed across the world as on all habitable landmasses or in all major oceanic ridges Tropics - ANSWERS-focus on tropics large number of species 'unusual' plants and animals, notion of high biodiversity in the tropics Wallacean Shortfall - ANSWERS-paucity of information on the geographic distribution of species on the existence of species and on species number parallel and meridian - ANSWERS-latitude and longitude coordinate system - ANSWERS-two crossing lines for a geographic point representative fraction - ANSWERS-scale independent of units ITCZ - ANSWERS-equatorial zone of direct insolation, warm rising air, high precipitation, low pressure insolation - ANSWERS-solar radiation received per unit area, per unit time; amount of sun to reach surface; 2.5 times more insolence at equator than poles adiabatic lapse - ANSWERS-rates measure temperature change via convection, cools ascending air rain shadow - ANSWERS-mountain range rain continentality - ANSWERS-greater seasonal pattern differences on continents than water, places near coast less temperature variation than inland
species richness - ANSWERS-relatively simple, but important measure of diversity representing the number of species in an ecological community alpha diversity - ANSWERS-variety of different species in one place beta diversity - ANSWERS-difference in species composition from place to place primary productivity - ANSWERS-the production of biomass by green plants ecological disturbance - ANSWERS-fires, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and other agents of sudden widespread destruction ecological succession - ANSWERS-process when species are tolerant of and dependent on disturbances for their continued existence and there is a regular pattern of colonization and replacement of species following the disturbances ecotone - ANSWERS-a zone of transition between two habitats or communities dispersal barrier - ANSWERS-inhospitable habitat requiring significant jump dispersal to be overcome dispersal corridor - ANSWERS-dispersal route that permits movement of many species from one place to another jump dispersal - ANSWERS-long distance, discontinuous dispersal, across some barrier diffusion dispersal - ANSWERS-dispersal route, more restictive than a corridor biogeographic line - ANSWERS-like Wallace's line; sharp faunal gap between two islands where many species reach their distributional limit and are replaced by forms from another place; south Asia VS Australia species - ANSWERS-fundamental taxanomic category for organisms taxonomy - ANSWERS-classifies and assigns names to organisms according to a hierarchical scheme Linnaean System of Nomenclature - ANSWERS-bi-nomial nomenclature attributed to Carolus Linneaus; Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species Phylogenetics - ANSWERS-reconstructs the history of evolutionary relationships among organisms cladogenisis - ANSWERS-splitting of an ancestral species into two or more daughter species
monophyletic - ANSWERS-describes a group that includes an ancestral taxon and all of its descendant taxa ecological speciation - ANSWERS-spatially isolated populations under different environmental conditions diverge as a result of natural selection in the absence of gene flow; different environmental regimes tend to select for different traits, and spatially isolated populations are likely to occur in different invironments allopatric speciation - ANSWERS-speciation by complete geographic isolation of populations sympatric speciation - ANSWERS-speciation with extensive overlap of population; occurs despite gene flow which must eventually be stopped by means other than geographic barriers parapatric speciation - ANSWERS-speciation with slight overlap in a narrow zone; occurs despite gene flow, which must eventually be stopped by means other than geographic barriers vicariance - ANSWERS-an event that isolates relatively large sets of population; mode of allopatric speciation; barrier introduced within a taxon's distribution hybrid zone - ANSWERS-area where genetically distinct populations mate and produce hybrids; results in a zone of rapid shift from one genotype to another; usually indicates where formerly allopatric pupulations have come into contact but may also suggest parapatric speciation adaptive radiation - ANSWERS-the diversifications of species to fill a wide variety of ecological niches; occurs when a single ancestral species gives rise, through repeated episodes of speciation to numerous kinds of descendants that become or remain sympatric polyploidy - ANSWERS-sympatric speciation can occur through chromosomal changes; polyploidy is the term for when an entire additionl set of chromosomes is passes on, changing the numner by some multiple (doubling or tripling); this does not prove sympatric speciation but suggests that if may have occurred many times extinction - ANSWERS-disappearance of a species, ultimate ecological and evolutionary fate of every species eustatic sea level change - ANSWERS-global change resulting from fluctuation in volume and temperature of ocean waters usually due to glacial activity or inactivity
fragmentation - ANSWERS-creating small patches of good habitat that are scattered and separated from each other; it occurs when one or more factors increases the patchiness of a habitat and/or reduces the total area of the habitat range collapse - ANSWERS-contraction of species distribution via population decline and local extirpation (death, reproductive failure, intro of invasives) marginal populations usually survive due to isolation Linnean shortfall - ANSWERS-the disparity between the # of described species and the total number of species in existence species isolation relationship - ANSWERS-island isolation and species richness; dispersal to nearby islands is more likely than to more distant islands; islands with higher immigration rates tend to build up more species richness rescue effect - ANSWERS-tendency for extinction rates to be relatively low on less isolated islands b/c their relatively high immigration rate tends to supplement declining populations before they suffer extinction non-equilibrium biota - ANSWERS-biota who don't follow the rules; those that are geographically isolated and increase in species richness areogeography - ANSWERS-study of the structure of geographic ranges, including variation in their sizes, shapes and overlaps Bergman's Rule - ANSWERS-body mass to increase with latitude Rappaport's Rule - ANSWERS-range size increases with latitude latitudinal diversity gradient - ANSWERS-increasing diversity from poles to equator elevational diversity gradient - ANSWERS-species richness of most groups of terrestrial organisms increases gradually along coastal plains, rises more rapidly with ascent to foothills and then declines again as it gets higher depth diversity gradient - ANSWERS-aquatic realm; smaller bodies of water, fewer species; more isolated waters are more distinct peninsula effect - ANSWERS-hypothesized tendency for species richness to decrease along a gradient from the axis to the most distal point of a peninsula invasive species - ANSWERS-species that can kill or displace native species; rapid range expansion, high population density, strong ecological species, usually R strategy; novel conditions
introduced species - ANSWERS-intentional or unintentional human transport of a species to a new location outside its historical range KT boundary - ANSWERS-65 million years ago mass extinction, dinosaurs gone, asteroid, cloud of dust phyletic gradualism - ANSWERS-species are gradually transformed over time, and diversity slowly accumulates macroevolution - ANSWERS-evolution above the population level phanerozoic - ANSWERS-cambrian-present 545 MA up to now, most recorded stuff cenozoic - ANSWERS-age of mammals; tertiary, quarterneary, 65 MA to present cretaceous - ANSWERS-dinosaurs, 145-65 mill years ago, high sea, warm climate quarternary - ANSWERS-two geologic epochs, pleistocene and holocene, pleistocene - ANSWERS-50-10,000 years ago, late pleistocene extinctions, climate change, human hunting, habitat alterations holocene - ANSWERS-last 10,000 years tethyan seaway - ANSWERS-sea between pangea and gondwana and laurasia epeiric seas - ANSWERS-shallow marine systems over flooded continental plates during periods of high sea level antarctic circumpolar current - ANSWERS-flows from west to east around Antarctica; keeps warm ocean waters away from Antarctica gondwana - ANSWERS-southern half of pangea laurasia - ANSWERS-northern half of pangea
