Welcome to Biogeography!

GEOG 3351

Instructor: Cameron Naficy

TA: Ben Brayden

• Syllabus

• Biogeography overview

• Biodiversity basics

Instructor: Cameron Naficy cameron.naficy@colorado.edu Office: Gugg 314 Office Hours: M, W 11:10 – 12:30pm or by appointment

TA: Ben Brayden PhD Student Department of Geography Ecohydrology Lab Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)

Office: Guggenheim 107 Office Hours: by appointment Email: benjamin.brayden@colorado.edu

Required Textbook Lomolino, MV, BR Riddle, RJ Whittaker, JH Brown. 2010. Biogeography 4th edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc. 878 pp.

One copy is on reserve at Norlin Library.

Course logistics:

• Course website:

http://www.colorado.edu/geography/class_homepages/geog_3351_f12/

- Also accessed via geography website

Grading

• Midterm 1 = 15%

• Midterm 2 = 15%

• Final exam = 15%

• Research project = 25% (5% research summary due Oct 10, 20% final paper due Nov 16)

• Critiques = 15%

• Assignments = 10%

• Class participation = 5%

Exams: Exams will be a combination of short essay questions, multiple choice, and true/false questions that are designed to test not only your general knowledge of the topics, but also your critical thinking skills.

Research paper: •Investigate a topic related to biogeography that is of interest to you (8-10 pages). •Literature review or critical evaluation of an important topic in biogeography Due dates •Oct. 10 – 1 page summary of your topic with at least 5 peer-reviewed references (5% of grade). •Nov. 16 – final paper due

Critiques: •Should summarize the context, methods, primary results, and ecological importance of the paper, and include your critical evaluation of the study. •No more than 3 pages, double-spaced. •Critiques due at the beginning of class on due date. See syllabus and website for greater detail on format/contents.

Abide by the Honor Code

http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/

• First infraction: F on assignment.

• Second infraction: F in course.

• On my honor as a University of Colorado at Boulder student I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance

Keys to success:

- Attend all lectures!

- Ask questions!

- Turn in assignments on time!

- If personal problems arise during

the semester, please contact me.

Laptops in

lecture are

only for

note-taking!!

http://tusb.stanford.edu/Computers%20and%20Lecture.jpg

TURN OFF YOUR PHONES!

Science of Biogeography

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of biodiversity over space and time. It aims to reveal where organisms live, at what abundance, and why.

1988, Veblen

1905, McClure

Highly Interdisciplinary

• History

• Biology

• Geography

• Ecology

• Conservation

• Evolution

• Geology

• Genetics

• Meteorology

And many more…

What kind of questions do biogeographers ask?

• Why does Madagascar have such a distinctive fauna and flora?

• Why do the tropics have more biodiversity than other regions on Earth?

• Why are armadillos only found in South and North America?

?

Armadillo range

• Why do trees on mountains stop growing at a certain elevation?

Growth of biogeography as a discipline

(A) number of books and monographs on biogeography on the WorldCat database

(B) number of articles on biogeography found in the Article 1st database

From Brown & Lomolino (1998)

Why is biogeography growing fast?

• Transformation of biogeography itself: from a descriptive science into a science aimed at testing theories.

• Application of new technologies.

• Environmental concern and need to understand and manage biological systems at broader scales.

My research

• Forest disturbances

– Wildfires

– Insects

• Physiological causes of mortality

– Drought

– Carbon dynamics

• Climate change

• Policy implications

My research Methods

• Dendroecology

• Remote sensing

• Aerial photography

• Ecophysiology

Northern Rockies

Patagonia

https://vimeo.com/45991499

New Zealand & Tasmania

Ben Brayden’s Research Biological disturbance Competitive release and forest succession Forest carbon dynamics Water and carbon cycle coupling Biogeochemistry

Sites Fraser Experimental Research Forest Niwot Ridge LTER Gordon Gulch CZO

Methods

Increment cores

Flux measurements

LAI’ hemispherical photographs

GIS

Physiological measurements

Abbreviated course outline

1. Species distributions basics (e.g. biotic and abiotic factors, disturbance)

2. Past and present of species distributions (speciation, plate tectonics, glaciations)

3. Ecological biogeography (biodiversity patterns, conservation, invasive species, consequences of climate change)

Diversity on Earth

• ~2 million formally recognized species – Fraction have known distribution and range of characteristics

• Estimated – 2-100 million current species on earth (most unclassified are invertebrates)

• Perhaps millions or billions species currently extinct (small fraction preserved as fossils)

• More extinct than extant species

How is global biodiversity estimated?

Prior to 1982, most biologists thought 2-5 million species

Terry Erwin’s experiment in eastern Peru:

Fogged 19 Luehea seemannii canopies and collected fallen insects

How is global biodiversity estimated?

Terry Erwin’s experiment in eastern Peru:

• Found 1200 beetle species in 19 Luehea seemannii tree canopies;

estimated 162 were host-specific

• 50,000 total tropical tree spp

• Calculation – 162 x 50,000 = 8,100,000 host-specific beetles in tropical trees

• Beetles represent only 40% of all members of Arthropods

• Calculation – 8,100,000/0.4 = 20,250,000 spp of Arthropods in tropical canopies

• Assumed canopies have twice diversity of ground

• Calculation – 20,250,000 (canopy spp) + 10,125,000 (ground spp) = 30,375,000 spp of arthropods in tropical rainforest!!!!

Why is biodiversity so hard to estimate?

1. # undescribed species is unknown

2. Efforts to document species vary across groups

3. Efforts to document species vary across the world

4. Extrapolations are controversial

5. Definition of species can be difficult (i.e. ecotypes, hybrids)

Bryozoans, aquatic moss animals Little spiderhunter, Philippines, 2010