Description
Through eight successful editions, and over nearly 40 years, Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach has provided a thorough and comprehensive exploration of the varied scientific disciplines and research that are essential to understanding the subject. The text has been praised for its solid background in historical biogeography and basic biology, that is enhanced and illuminated by discussions of current research.
This new edition incorporates the exciting changes of the recent years, and presents a thoughtful exploration of the research and controversies that have transformed our understanding of the biogeography of the world. It also clearly identifies the three quite different arenas of biogeographical research: continental biogeography, island biogeography and marine biogeography. It is the only current textbook with full coverage of marine biogeography.
It reveals how the patterns of life that we see today have been created by the two great Engines of the Planet - the Geological Engine, plate tectonics, which alters the conditions of life on the planet, and the Biological Engine, evolution, which responds to these changes by creating new forms and patterns of life.
Table of Contents
1 The History of Biogeography
SECTION I: THE CHALLENGE OF EXISTING
2 Patterns of Distribution: Finding a Home
3 Communities and Ecosystems: Living Together
SECTION II: THE ENGINES OF THE PLANET
5 Plate Tectonics
6 Evolution, the Source of Novelty
SECTION III: ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY
7 Life, Death and Evolution on Islands
SECTION IV: PATTERNS OF LIFE
8 From Evolution to Patterns of Life
9 Patterns in the Oceans
10 Patterns in the Past
11 Setting the Scene for Today
12 Ice and Change
SECTION V: PEOPLE AND PROBLEMS
13 The Human Intrusion
14 Conservation Biogeography
Barry Cox formerly King's College, London, UK
Peter D. Moore is Emeritus Reader in Ecology at King's College London. He has written extensively on ecology and global environmental change and was, for 35 years, Ecology Correspondent for the journal Nature
Richard Ladle is Titular Professor of Conservation Biogeography at the Federal University of Alagoas on the northeast coast of Brazil. He is also a Senior research associate at the School of Geography in Oxford University, as well as the director of Tamandua Environmental Consultants