fbv03i03 all

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

1/45

frontiersofbiogeographyvol.3,n3 november2011

thescientificmagazineoftheInternationalBiogeographySociety

ISSN19486596freelyavailableathttp://www.biogeography.org/
http://www.biogeography.org/http://www.biogeography.org/

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

2/45

frontiersofbiogeographythescientificmagazineoftheInternationalBiogeographySocietyvolume3,issue3 November2011

cover:Floweringredbuglosses(Echiumwildpretii,alsonamedtajinastes

rojosinSpanish)infrontofMount

Teide(Tenerife,CanaryIslands).PhotographbyAnaM.C.Santos.

editorialboard

editorinchief:Joaqun Hortal Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC),SpainandUniversidadeFederaldeGois,Brazil

deputyeditorsinchief:MichaelNDawsonUniversityofCalifornia,Merced,USARichardFieldUniversityofNottingham,UK

frontiersofbiogeography ispublishedbythe InternationalBiogeography Society (IBS),an internationaland interdisciplinarysociety

contributingtotheadvancementofallstudiesofthegeographyofnature

frontiersofbiogeographyisavailableonlineattheIBSwebsite:http://www.biogeography.org/html/fb.html

frontiersofbiogeography aimstobea forum forbiogeographersandawaytodisseminateresearch inbiogeographyto thegeneralpublic;ourscopeincludesopinions,perspectives,andreviews,symposiaproceedings,letterstotheeditor,bookreviews,researchupdates,interviews,andarticlesonhowtoteach,disseminateand/orapplybiogeographicalknowledge.Letterstotheeditorandsymposiumproceedingsmayincludenovelanalysesoforiginaldatasets(seeeditorialinstructions).Manuscriptsshouldbesubmittedtofrontiersofbiogeography@gmail.com.EditorialenquiriesshouldbemadetotheEditorinChiefatibs@mncn.csic.es.

frontiersofbiogeographyusesapublicationagreementbasedontheCreativeCommonsschemetoensurethattheauthorsretainfullintellectualproperty(IP)rightsontheirwork,andthatthisisfreelyavailableforanynoncommercialuse.Underthisagreement,theIBSretainsonlythecopyrightofthejournalcompilationunderaCreativeCommonsAttributionNonCommercialNoDerivatives(CCANCND)license.TheauthorshavefullIPovertheirtextsunderanuniversalCreativeCommonsAttributeLicense(CCAL),beingabletodistributetheirwork(includingtheoriginalPDFs)activelyfromthedayofpublication,andpassivelyfromoneyearafter(seethefulllicenseinformationattheendoftheissue).

youcanfindinformationabouttheInternationalBiogeography

Societyathttp://www.biogeography.org/;forthelatestjobannounce

ments and other news please visit also the IBS blog (http://biogeography.blogspot.com/), and the IBS facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6908354463).

President:LawrenceR.HeaneyPresidentElect:RosemaryGillespieVPforConferences:DanielGavinVPforPublicAffairs&Communications:MichaelNDawsonVPforDevelopment&Awards:GeorgeStevensSecretary:RichardFieldTreasurer:LoisF.AlexanderDirectoratlarge:CatherineGrahamDirectoratlarge:KathyWillisStudentatlarge:AnaM.C.Santos

FirstPastPresident:JamesH.BrownSecondPastPresident:MarkV.LomolinoThirdPastPresident:BrettR.RiddleFourthPastPresident:VickiFunkFifthPastPresident:RobertJ.Whittaker

Upcomingmeetinghost(exofficio):KennethFeeleyPastGraduatestudentrepresentative(exofficio):MatthewHeard

ISSN19486596

associateeditors:AntjeAhrendsRoyalBotanicGardenEdinburgh,UKJanBeckUniversityofBasel,SwitzerlandJessicaBloisUniversityofWisconsin,Madison,USAChrisBurridgeUniversityofTasmania,Australia

MarcusV.

Cianciaruso

UniversidadeFederaldeGois,BrazilMarkusEichhornUniversityofNottingham,UK

RoyErkensUniversiteitUtrecht,TheNetherlandsCamillaFljgaardAarhusUniversity,DenmarkDanGavinUniversityofOregon,USAMatthewJ.HeardBrownUniversity,USADavidG.JenkinsUniversityofCentralFlorida,Orlando,USAFrankA.LaSorteCornelllabofOrnithology,USARichardLadleUniversidadeFederaldeAlagoas,BrazilandOxford

University,UKRichardPearsonAmericanMuseumofNaturalHistory,USAThiagoF.RangelUniversidadeFederaldeGois,BrazilWillemRenemaNCBNaturalis,TheNetherlandsNriaRouraPascualUniversitatdeGironaandCentreTecnolgic

ForestaldeCatalunya,SpainSpyrosSfenthourakisUniversityofPatras,Greece

editorialassistant:LaurenSchiebelhutUniversityofCalifornia,Merced,USA

advisoryboard:MiguelB.ArajoMuseoNacionaldeCienciasNaturales (CSIC),

SpainandUniversidadedevora,PortugalLawrenceR.HeaneyFieldMuseumofNaturalHistory,Chicago,USADavidG.JenkinsUniversityofCentralFlorida,Orlando,USARichardLadleUniversidadeFederaldeAlagoas,BrazilandOxford

University,UKMarkV.LomolinoStateUniversityofNewYork,USAIBSV.P.forPublicAffairs&Communications

InternationalBiogeographySocietyofficers20112012
http://jhortal.com/http://jhortal.com/http://jhortal.com/http://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://www.biogeography.org/html/fb.htmlmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.biogeography.org/http://biogeography.blogspot.com/http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6908354463http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6908354463http://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://nature.berkeley.edu/~gillespi/http://nature.berkeley.edu/~gillespi/http://nature.berkeley.edu/~gillespi/http://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/grahamlab/http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/grahamlab/http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/grahamlab/http://oxlel.zoo.ox.ac.uk/prof-kathy-willishttp://oxlel.zoo.ox.ac.uk/prof-kathy-willishttp://oxlel.zoo.ox.ac.uk/prof-kathy-willishttp://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://biology.unm.edu/jhbrown/http://biology.unm.edu/jhbrown/http://biology.unm.edu/jhbrown/http://biology.unm.edu/jhbrown/http://biology.unm.edu/jhbrown/http://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://sols.unlv.edu/faculty/riddle.htmlhttp://sols.unlv.edu/faculty/riddle.htmlhttp://sols.unlv.edu/faculty/riddle.htmlhttp://sols.unlv.edu/faculty/riddle.htmlhttp://sols.unlv.edu/faculty/riddle.htmlhttp://botany.si.edu/staff/staffPage.cfm?ThisName=16http://botany.si.edu/staff/staffPage.cfm?ThisName=16http://botany.si.edu/staff/staffPage.cfm?ThisName=16http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rwhittaker.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rwhittaker.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rwhittaker.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rwhittaker.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rwhittaker.htmlhttp://www2.fiu.edu/~kfeeley/Feeley%20Lab.htmlhttp://www2.fiu.edu/~kfeeley/Feeley%20Lab.htmlhttp://www2.fiu.edu/~kfeeley/Feeley%20Lab.htmlhttp://www.mattheard.com/http://www.mattheard.com/http://www.mattheard.com/http://www.rbge.org.uk/science/homehttp://www.rbge.org.uk/science/homehttp://www.rbge.org.uk/science/homehttp://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckhttp://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckhttp://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckhttp://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckhttps://mywebspace.wisc.edu/blois/web/https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/blois/web/https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/blois/web/http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=5232http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=5232http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=5232http://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=5232http://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://www3.bio.uu.nl/peb/staff/personal/rerkens/royerkens.htmlhttp://www3.bio.uu.nl/peb/staff/personal/rerkens/royerkens.htmlhttp://www3.bio.uu.nl/peb/staff/personal/rerkens/royerkens.htmlhttp://person.au.dk/camilla.floejgaard@biologyhttp://person.au.dk/camilla.floejgaard@biologyhttp://person.au.dk/camilla.floejgaard@biologyhttp://person.au.dk/camilla.floejgaard@biologyhttp://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://www.mattheard.com/http://www.mattheard.com/http://www.mattheard.com/http://www.mattheard.com/http://www.mattheard.com/http://www.mattheard.com/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://cbc.amnh.org/center/staff/stffpearson.htmlhttp://cbc.amnh.org/center/staff/stffpearson.htmlhttp://cbc.amnh.org/center/staff/stffpearson.htmlhttp://www.naturalis.nl/en/http://www.naturalis.nl/en/http://www.naturalis.nl/en/https://sites.google.com/site/nrourapascual/https://sites.google.com/site/nrourapascual/https://sites.google.com/site/nrourapascual/https://sites.google.com/site/nrourapascual/https://sites.google.com/site/nrourapascual/https://sites.google.com/site/nrourapascual/http://www.biology.upatras.gr/attachments/084_Sfenthourakis_CV.pdfhttp://www.biology.upatras.gr/attachments/084_Sfenthourakis_CV.pdfhttp://www.biology.upatras.gr/attachments/084_Sfenthourakis_CV.pdfhttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://www.ibiochange.mncn.csic.es/people/miguel-araujohttp://www.ibiochange.mncn.csic.es/people/miguel-araujohttp://www.ibiochange.mncn.csic.es/people/miguel-araujohttp://www.ibiochange.mncn.csic.es/people/miguel-araujohttp://www.ibiochange.mncn.csic.es/people/miguel-araujohttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://www.ibiochange.mncn.csic.es/people/miguel-araujohttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://www.biology.upatras.gr/attachments/084_Sfenthourakis_CV.pdfhttps://sites.google.com/site/nrourapascual/http://www.naturalis.nl/en/http://cbc.amnh.org/center/staff/stffpearson.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://jenkins.cos.ucf.edu/http://www.mattheard.com/http://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://person.au.dk/camilla.floejgaard@biologyhttp://www3.bio.uu.nl/peb/staff/personal/rerkens/royerkens.htmlhttp://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/eichhorn.htmlhttp://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://fcms.its.utas.edu.au/scieng/zoo/pagedetails.asp?lpersonId=5232https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/blois/web/http://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckhttp://www.rbge.org.uk/science/homehttp://www.mattheard.com/http://www2.fiu.edu/~kfeeley/Feeley%20Lab.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rwhittaker.htmlhttp://botany.si.edu/staff/staffPage.cfm?ThisName=16http://sols.unlv.edu/faculty/riddle.htmlhttp://www.esf.edu/efb/faculty/lomolino.htmhttp://biology.unm.edu/jhbrown/http://cita.angra.uac.pt/biodiversidade/equipa/ver.php?id=20http://oxlel.zoo.ox.ac.uk/prof-kathy-willishttp://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/grahamlab/http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://geography.uoregon.edu/gavin/gavin.htmlhttp://nature.berkeley.edu/~gillespi/http://fm1.fieldmuseum.org/aa/staff_page.cgi?staff=lheaneyhttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6908354463http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6908354463http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6908354463http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6908354463http://biogeography.blogspot.com/http://www.biogeography.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.biogeography.org/html/fb.htmlhttp://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lgzwww/contacts/staffPages/richardfield/rf.htmhttp://mnd.ucmerced.edu/MND.htmlhttp://jhortal.com/

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

3/45

update

Speciesareacurvesandtheestimationofextinctionrates

The speciesarea relationship (SAR) isoneof the

longestknown,mostintuitiveandempiricallybestprovenpatternsofbiodiversity(Arrhenius1921).

Variousauthorsdeterminedtheoreticallythatthe

SARcanbeapproximatedasapowerlawfunction

(i.e.,S=cAzwhereS isspeciesrichness,A isarea

and c and z are constants; Preston 1962, May

1975,Harteetal.1999),withz 0.25incontinen

tal areas but higher when dispersal barriers are

involved (e.g., island speciesarea relationship).

Empirical data suggested lower z in continental

areas (0.130.18)andvaluesupto0.35 for islandsystems (Rosenzweig 1995). Dengler (2009) re

centlycametotheconclusionthatthepowerlaw

fits empirical data best in most cases (see also

Dengler & Odeland 2010). Various authors ob

served further systematicvariationsof z, suchas

whenconsideringspatialscaleorsamplingdesign

(Plotkin et al. 2001, Scheiner 2006, Tjrve 2006,

Dengler2009).Kinzig&Harte (2000)pointedout

the difference between SAR and the endemics

area

curve (EAR), which considers only speciesendemictoapartoftheregionunderanalysis.So

what couldHe&Hubbell (2011) report thatwas

so novel and generally relevant about SARs to

meritrecentpublicationinNature?

Sinceareaseemsalwaystoaffectbiodiver

sity,nomatterwhattaxon,systemorscale,SARs

have frequently been used to estimate species

richnesslossresultingfromanthropogenichabitat

destruction, i.e.extinctionrates inaconservation

context.Thelossofacertainamountofarealeadsto fewer species existing in a region at least

some regionalextinctionsoccur and the shape

of the SAR has typically been used to retrieve

quantitative estimates of how many species will

go(regionally)extinct.

Providingempiricalevidencefortheextinc

tionofaspecies ischallengingandestimatingex

tinction rates across a community evenmore so

(Ladleetal.2011,thisissue).Yetthisisneededfor

manyconservationapplications,suchasschemesforoffsettingbiodiversityloss(Curranetal.2011)

or,notleast,forpoliticalargument.Itistherefore

notsurprisingthatSARbasedestimatesofextinc

tion have been welcome despite critical studiesthatoften found lowerextinction rates thanpre

dicted (e.g.,Kinzig&Harte2000). Itwasargued,

reasonably,thatontopof imminentextinction in

some species, others will be doomed to future

extinctionbecauseof reductions in theirpopula

tion size, and that this extinctiondebt explains

apparentmisfits.Other sourcesofuncertaintyof

theSARbasedestimatesare the (often false)as

sumptionofacompletely inhospitablematrixbe

tweenremaininghabitatpatches (Koh&Ghazoul2010)ortheuseofdefaultslopevalues(z) inthe

absenceofsystemspecificfitteddata.

He & Hubbell (2011) pointed out that a

backward interpolation of SARs is a flawed con

ceptofmeasuringextinctionrates(seealsoKinzig

& Harte 2000). This is because the area gain

neededtoencounterthefirst individualofanew

species (which shapes theSAR) isalways smaller

thanthearealossneededtoremovethelastindi

vidual.Toshowthis,theyformulatedbothasspatiallyexplicitsamplingprocesses(SARforfirsten

counters, EAR for last encounters). They con

cluded that SARderived estimates of imminent

extinctionwillalwaysbetoohigh,unlessindividu

als are randomly distributed (i.e., no aggregated

occurrenceof individualswithinaspecies),which

isanunrealisticassumption.He&Hubbell(2011)

also showed that the EAR is a goodpredictorof

empiricalextinctionratesevenifnospatialaggre

gation is modelled, which offers an alternative(butamorechallengingone)forestimatingimme

diateextinctionofendemicsfromarealoss.

He&Hubbell (2011) clearly acknowledged

that there is an anthropogenic extinction crisis

and that habitat loss causes extinction. Further

more, they did not claim that small population

sizes of remaining species couldnot lead to fur

ther, lagged extinction (in He & Hubbells view,

EARsmodelonlyimminentextinctionandsodo

SARs, but wrongly). Despite this, He & Hubbell(2011) already anticipated that pointing out this

error in estimating extinctions would not be

news and update ISSN19486596

81frontiersofbiogeography3.3,20112011theauthors;journalcompilation2011TheInternationalBiogeographySociety

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

4/45

greetedwithenthusiasmamongconservationists,

andthecorrespondenceonthepaper(Evansetal.

2011,Brooks2011; see alsoonline commentsat

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/

n7351/full/474284b.html) seems to confirm that.

Thepaper isviewedas irresponsiblyundermining

conservationeffortsbyallowinganticonservation

groupstoclaimthatthingsarenotasbadasprevi

ouslyasserted (fossil fuel lobbying in the climate

changediscussion iscitedasexampleof this tac

tic).Conservingnature isnotonlyabout science,

butitistoalargedegreepoliticsandcorrecting

anerrorleadstobettersciencebutmightweaken

political success. I think scientists must correct

themselves and not hold on to preconceived

ideas,evenifitcreatessuchdilemmas.

However,He&Hubbell(2011)studiedarea

effects as a sampling problem in continental re

gions,whichisprobablyappropriateforcapturing

immediate extinction in many conservation set

tings which occur at the regional or landscape

scale. It remains to be understood and tested

whethertheirconclusionsthat(a)EARestimates

extinction better than SAR (cf. Kinzig & Harte

2000,Pereiraetal.2012)and(b)zdifferssystem

aticallybetweenSARandEAR(whichispresented

confusingly) aregeneralities.Thusitremainsto

be seen whether SARs always overestimate ex

tinction,asHeandHubbell(2011)claimed.Afur

ther task will be to quantitatively estimate how

many more species may go extinct after a time

lag: how large the extinction debt really is (see

alsoPereiraetal.,inpress).Inthiscontext,itmay

be worthwhile to thoroughly investigate under

whichcircumstances, ifany,theconsequencesof

area lost to habitat destruction could be under

stood solelyon thebasisof islandbiogeographic

mechanisms (Rosenzweig2001) that is, species

richness as equilibrium between immigration +

speciationandextinction.Thespatialandtempo

ralscalesofanalysis,amongotherfactors,maybe

relevantforthis.Undersuchcircumstances,SARs

mayestimatethenewequilibriumstate,account

ingforimminentandtimelaggedextinctions.

JanBeckUniversityofBasel,Dept.EnvironmentalScience

(Biogeographysection),Basel,Switzerland.

email:[email protected];

http://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beck

References

Arrhenius,O.(1921)Speciesandarea.JournalofEcology,9,9599.

Brooks, T.M. (2011) Extinctions: consider all species.Nature,474,284.

Curran,M.,DeBaan, L.,de Schryver,A.M., vanZelm,R., Hellweg, S., Koellner, T., Sonnemann, G. &Huijbregts, M.A.J. (2011) Toward meaningfulend points of biodiversity in life cycle assess

ment. Environmental Science and Technology,45,7079.

Dengler,J.(2009)Whichfunctiondescribesthespeciesarearelationshipbest?Areviewandempiricalevaluation. Journal of Biogeography, 36, 728744.

Dengler, J. & Oldeland, J. (2010) Effects of samplingprotocol on the shapes of species richnesscurves.JournalofBiogeography,37,16981705.

Evans,M.,Possingham,H.&Wilson,K. (2011)Extinctions:conservenotcollate.Nature,474,284.

Harte, J.,Kinzig,A.&Green, J. (1999)Selfsimilarity in

thedistributionand abundanceof species. Science,284,334336.

He,F.&Hubbell,S.P.(2011)Speciesarearelationshipsalwaysoverestimateextinctionratesfromhabitatloss.Nature,473,368371.

Kinzig,A.&Harte, J. (2000) Implicationsofendemicsarea relationships for estimates of species extinctions.Ecology,81,33053311.

Koh,L.P.&Ghazoul, J.(2010)Amatrixcalibratedspeciesarea model for predicting biodiversitylosses due to landuse change. ConservationBiology,24,9941001.

Ladle,T.J., Jepson,P.,Malhado,A.C.M., Jennings,S.&Barua,M. (2011)Thecausesandbiogeographicalsignificanceofspeciesrediscovery.FrontiersofBiogeography,3,111118.

May, R.M. (1975) Patterns of species abundance anddistribution. In Cody M.C. & Diamond J.M.(eds.), Ecology and evolution of communities,pp.81120;BelknapPress,Cambridge(Mass.).

Pereira,H.M.,BordadeAgua,L.&Martins, I.S. (2012)Geometry and scale in speciesarea relationships.Nature,inpress.

Plotkin,J.B.,Potts,M.D.,Yu,D.W.,etal.(2000)Predict

ingspeciesdiversityintropicalforests.Proceedingsof theNationalAcademyof SciencesUSA,97,1085010854.

newsandupdate

82 2011theauthors;journalcompilation2011TheInternationalBiogeographySocietyfrontiersofbiogeography3.3,2011
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7351/full/474284b.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7351/full/474284b.htmlmailto:[email protected]://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckhttp://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckmailto:[email protected]://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7351/full/474284b.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7351/full/474284b.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7351/full/474284b.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v474/n7351/full/474284b.html

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

5/45

Preston,F.W.(1962)Thecanonicaldistributionofcommonness and rarity: Part I. Ecology, 43, 185215.

Rosenzweig,M.L.(1995)Speciesdiversityinspaceandtime.CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge.

Rosenzweig, M.L. (2001) Loss of speciation rate willimpoverish futurediversity.Proceedingsof theNational Academy of Sciences USA, 89, 54045410.

Scheiner,S.M.(2003)Sixtypesofspeciesareacurves.GlobalEcologyandBiogeography,12,441447.

Tjrve,E.(2006)Shapesandfunctionsofspeciesareacurves:a reviewofpossiblemodels. JournalofBiogeography,30,827835.

EditedbyJoaqunHortal

newsandupdate

update

Extinctorextant?Woodpeckersandrhinoceros


ISSN19486596

Biogeographical researchneedsaccuratedataon

thedistributionofspecies.Formanyspeciesthisis

exceedinglydifficulttoobtain,leadingtoalackof

global informationcollectivelyknownastheWal

laceanshortfall.Fortunately,new toolsarebeing

developed that allow conservationists and bio

geographerstodeterminetheexistenceofextant

populationswithmuchgreateraccuracy.

Foremostamongthesenewtools isthe in

creasinguseofgeneticanalysis.Thiswasrecently

used to greateffect to confirm theextinctionof

theJavanrhinoceros(Rhinocerossondaicusanna

miticus) in Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam

(Brooket al.2011).Despite theirenormous size,

Javan rhinoceros are remarkably shy forest

dwelling animals that are difficult to see under

naturalconditionsandwereonly rediscovered in

mainlandAsia in1988.Giventhedifficultyoftra

ditional surveying techniques, scientists from

WWF and the Cat Tien National park had been

monitoring thepopulationby conductinggenetic

analysisofdungsamplescollectedintheparkbe

tween2009and2010.Theanalysis indicatedthat

all the dung belonged to a single individual, the

bodyofwhichwasfoundApril2010,therebycon

firmingtheextinctionofthepopulation.

Of course, genetic analysis is costly, time

consuming and requires some form of biological

tissue(hair,dung,etc.).Formanyrareanimalsthe

onlyinformationthatexistsistheoccasionalsight

ing, the reliability of which is often highly ques

tionable. Andrew Solow and his colleagues have

recently come up with an ingenious method to

account for this inevitable uncertainty (Solow et

al. 2011). They use Bayesian (probabilitybased)

statistics to model changes in the rate of valid

sightings and to assess the quality of uncertain

sightings for the ivorybilled woodpecker

(Campephilusprincipalis) in North America. The

woodpecker was controversially rediscovered in

2005, but a lack of clear documentary evidence

and the failure of subsequent intensive surveys

have ledmanyscientists todoubt theveracityof

this claim.TheBayesianmodel appliedbySolow

to68historicalsightings(29ofwhichwereclassi

fiedasuncertain)stronglysuggeststhatthebirdis

indeedextinct,andthe2005sightingwassadlya

caseofmistakenidentity.

RichardLadleFederalUniversityofAlagoas,InstituteofBiological

SciencesandHealth,BrazilandOxfordUniversity,

SchoolofGeographyandtheEnvironment,UK.


http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.html

References

Brook, S., de Groot, P.V.C., Mahood, S. & Long, B.(2011) Extinction of the Javan Rhinoceros(Rhinoceros sondaicus) from Vietnam. WWFR e p o r t . A v a i l a b l e a t : h t t p : / /www.worldwildlife.org/who/media/press/2011/WWFBinaryitem24584.pdf

Solow,A.,Smith,W.,Burgman,M.,Rout,T.,Wintle,B.andRoberts,D. (2011),Uncertainsightingsandthe extinction of the ivorybilled woodpecker.Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/j.15231739.2011.01743.x

mailto:[email protected]://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlhttp://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/staff/rladle.htmlmailto:[email protected]

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

6/45

newsandupdate

Links between climate and societal instability,

conflictandwarhaveincreasinglybeensuggestedandanalyzed(Diamond2005),therebyfusingtra

ditionally distinct academic disciplines such as

(bio)geography, (agro)ecology and economics,

history and peace research. Studies exploring

these relationships are particularly pertinent in

timesofanthropogenicclimatechange.

Recent research has provided quantitative

support for such climateculture linkages, but

mostof thesestudieshaveeitherbeenbasedon

correlativeevidence(e.g.,Zhangetal.2007),analyzed shortterm climate fluctuations (e.g.,Burke

et al. 2009)or addressed specifichypotheseson

the causes of human conflict (Beck and Sieber

2010).However, inordertomakeconflictpredic

tionsunderclimatechangescenariosreliableand

toengageinconflictpreventionormitigation,itis

importanttobecertainaboutcausalrelationships

and to fullyunderstand themechanistic linksbe

tween past climatic changes and historical con

flicts.Twonewstudieshaveattemptedthis.Hsiangetal.(2011)madeuseoftherecur

ring yet irregular El Nio Southern Oscillation

(ENSO)climaticchangesasanaturalexperiment.

Thisallowedthemtoshow,onaglobalscaleand

foratimeperiodofmorethanhalfacentury,that

(withinthesamelocalitiesandsocieties)civilcon

flicts were more likely to arise during El Nio

events as compared to LaNiaperiods. Further

more,no sucheffectwasobserved for countries

outsidetheENSOaffectedzoneoftheworld.Thisprovides strong evidence that climate is indeed

causaltotheseevents.However,theauthorscan

only speculate on a variety of mechanisms for

how(warmeranddrier)ElNioperiodscouldlead

toconflict.Effectsmediatedbydecreasedagricul

tural productivity and/or economic disturbance

(e.g.,resulting from increases innaturaldisasters

and diseases) seem plausible, but psychological

effectsofunusualweather conditionson a largenumber of individuals may also increase a soci

etysconflictpotential.

Zhang et al. (2011) presented a detailed

causality analysis based on a time series of cli

matic fluctuationsovera300yearperiod inpre

industrialEurope.Theyprovidestrongsupportfor

theideathatclimaticvariationcausedfluctuations

inagriculturalproductivity,andhence foodavail

abilityandprices.The latterwas identifiedasthe

root cause for a number of societal phenomenasuchasmigrations,epidemics,populationgrowth

and war. A temperaturebased model based on

thesemechanismscouldsuccessfullypredictperi

odsofcrisisandharmony forpasteraswith less

detailedhistoricalrecords.

Animportantfuturedirectionofresearchin

this field will certainly be the identification of

natural factors and societal traits that explain

variation around such climatedetermined pat

terns. Demography and economic performancehave sometimes been analyzed in this context

(Samsonetal.2011,Hsiangetal.2011).However,

itwillrequirethefurtherintegrationoftheabove

mentioned disciplines to sort out the ultimate

causes of why certain regions and/or societies

navigated smoother and less violent routes

through times of crisis than others (my current

location, Switzerland, is a prime example within

thelastfewcenturies).

JanBeckUniversityofBasel,Dept.EnvironmentalScience

(Biogeographysection),Basel,Switzerland.


http://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beck

ISSN19486596

Yourparticipationinfrontiersofbiogeographyisencouraged.Pleasesendusyourarticles,commentsand/orreviews,aswellaspictures,drawingsand/orcartoons.Wearealsoopentosug

gestionsoncontentand/orstructure.Pleasecheckhttp://www.biogeography.org/html/fb.htmlformoreinformation,[email protected]@gmail.com.

update

Climatewars

mailto:[email protected]://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckhttp://www.biogeography.unibas.ch/beckmailto:[email protected]

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

7/45

newsandupdate

References

BeckJ.,&Sieber,A.(2010)Isthespatialdistributionofmankinds most basic economic traits determinedbyclimateandsoilalone?PLoSONE5(5):e10416.

Burke,M.,Miguel,E., Satyanath, S.,Dykema, J.& Lobell, D. (2009) Warming increases risk of civilwarinAfrica.ProceedingsoftheNationalAcademyofSciencesUSA,106,2067020674.

Diamond, J. (2005) Collapse: how societies choose tofailorsucceed.Viking.

Hsiang,S.M.,Meng,K.C.&Cane,M.A.(2011)Civilconflictsareassociatedwiththeglobalclimate.Nature,476,438411.

Samson,J.,Berteaux,D.,McGill,B.J.,Humphries,M.M.(2011)Geographicdisparitiesandmoralhazardsin the predicted impacts of climate change on

human populations. Global Ecology and Biogeography,20,532544.

Zhang,D.D.,Lee,H.F.,Wang,C.,Lie,B.,Pei,Q.,Zhang,J. & An, Y. (2011) The causality analysis of climatechangeand largescalehumancrisis.Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesUSA,108,1729617301.

Zhang,D.D.,Brecke,P.,Lee,H.F.,He,Y.Q.&Zhang,J.(2007)Globalclimatechange,warandpopulationdecline in recenthuman history.Proceedingsof theNationalAcademyof SciencesUSA,104,1921419219.

EditedbyRichardLadle

update

Emergingresearchopportunitiesinglobalurbanecology

Biogeographershaveexaminedhowhumanactivi

tieshave affectedpatternsofbiologicaldiversity

fromavarietyofperspectives,withspecialatten

tionoftengiven tooceanic islands.With thecur

rent accelerating pace of environmental change,

these effects are increasingly evident at global

scales. Human industry, commerce, agriculture

and transportation allhave thepotentialnow to

affectnaturalsystemsgloballythroughanassort

ment of drivers; primary among these are land

use change, species introductions and climate

change.

Human activities and their consequences

cometoauniquefocusinurbanareas,anexpand

ing formof landuse that is attracting increasing

research attention from ecologists (Grimm et al.

2008).Urbanareascontainsimilarenvironmental

conditionsworldwideandactasa focalpoint for

species introductions and extinctions. These hu

mandominated environments offer unique op

portunities to investigate thebroadscaledynam

ics of humanmediated biotic interchange (La

Sorteetal.2007),itsconsequencesfor diversity

(LaSorteetal.2008)andtheregionalfactorsand

biologicaltraitsassociatedwithnativespeciesex

tinctions (Hahs et al. 2009, Duncan et al. 2011).

Urban areas typically contain spatially heteroge

neouscollectionsofnativeandnonnativespecies

(McKinney 2008); these unique assemblages can

be examined based on their compositional

(Niemeletal.2002)andphylogeneticstructures

(Ricotta et al. 2009). Three nested sampling ap

proachesare currentlyused to investigateurban

systems at broad spatial scales: urban plots or

transects, theentireurbanmatrixand theurban

matrix embedded within a regional context

(Werner2011).Eachsamplingapproachprovides

a unique inferential basis, although the third al

lows for more refined interpretation, controlling

forregionaldifferences.

A recent study in GlobalEcology

and

Bio

geographyadoptsanovelperspectiveandexam

ineshowavianassemblagessampledwithinplots

of intactvegetation inurbanandseminaturalar

eas differ based on several common mac

roecological relationships. Pautasso et al. (2011)

compileddataon speciescompositionandabun

dance from all around the globe, although the

majority of the samples are from Europe and

NorthAmerica.Aprimaryfindingofthestudywas

a lackofevidence fordifferences in the speciesarea,speciesabundanceorspeciesbiomassrela


ISSN19486596

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

8/45

newsandupdate

tionshipsbetweenurbanand seminatural locali

ties. The number of exotic bird species in urban

areas is low, suggesting that these relationships

are defined primarily by native species in both

environments.Thesefindingshighlighttheimpor

tanceofmaintaining intact vegetationwithinur

banlandscapesandtheroleofurbandiversityasa

tool for promoting conservation initiatives and

biologicalawareness, asemphasized inmanyur

banecology studies. Nevertheless, the findings

fromPautassoetal. (2011)contrastwithcurrent

expectationsonhowurbanizationaffectspatterns

ofdiversity,and shouldbeamotivating factor in

promotingfurtherresearch.Theincreasingpreva

lenceandqualityofglobaldata sourcesprovides

anexcitingbasistoexaminethestructureandde

terminantsofthesemacroecologicalrelationships

acrossmorerefinedtemporal,spatialandanthro

pogenicgradients.

By taking a global perspective, novel in

sightscanbegainedontheuniquepositionurban

areashave,bothasasourceforglobalchangeand

as regions capable of maintaining important as

pects of biological diversity. Global comparative

studiesalsohave thepotential tobolsterand re

fine current recommendations about how to

maintain biological diversity within human

dominated landscapes. Specifically, thepreserva

tionorrestorationofpatchesofintactvegetation

within urban areas is as valuable in maintaining

basic macroecological patterns of avian diversity

asconductingtheseactivitiesoutsideurbanareas.

Importantly,thisworktakesthefocusawayfrom

EuropeandNorthAmerica,wherethevastmajor

ityof the researchhasbeenconducted,allowing

foramore inclusivesetof inferencesandrecom

mendations. Urban data are becoming increas

ingly available through remote sensing activities,

citizen science initiatives and broader collabora

tive efforts. Exploring how anthropogenic activi

tiesareimpactingnaturalsystemsgloballyiscriti

cal in supporting a truly comprehensive under

standing of the current dynamics and longterm

consequencesofglobalenvironmentalchange.

FrankA.LaSorteCornellLabofOrnithology,Ithaca,NY,USA.


http://www.birds.cornell.edu/

References

Duncan, R.P., Clemants, S.E., Corlett, R.T., Hahs, A.K.,McCarthy, M.A., McDonnell, M.J., Schwartz,M.W., Thompson, K., Vesk, P.A. & Williams,N.S.G.(2011)Planttraitsandextinctioninurbanareas:ametaanalysisof11cities.GlobalEcologyandBiogeography,20,509519.

Grimm, N.B., Faeth, S.H., Golubiewski, N.E., Redman,C.L.,Wu, J.,Bai,X.&Briggs, J.M. (2008)Globalchangeand the ecologyof cities. Science,319,756760.

Hahs, A.K., McDonnell, M.J., McCarthy, M.A.,et al.(2009) A global synthesis of plant extinctionrates inurbanareas.EcologyLetters,12,11651173.

LaSorte,F.A.,McKinney,M.L.&Pyek,P.(2007)Compositional similarity among urban floras withinand across continents: biogeographical consequencesofhumanmediatedbioticinterchange.GlobalChangeBiology,13,913921.

LaSorte,F.A.,McKinney,M.L.,Pyek,P.,Klotz,S.,Rapson, G.L., CelestiGrapow, L. & Thompson, K.(2008)Distancedecay insimilarityamongEuropeanurbanfloras:theimpactsofanthropogenicactivitieson diversity.GlobalEcologyandBiogeography,17,363371.

McKinney,M.L. (2008)Effectsofurbanizationon species richness: a review of plants and animals.UrbanEcosystems,11,161176.

Niemel,J.,Kotze,D.J.,Venn,S.,Penev,L.,Stoyanov,I.,Spence, J., Hartley, D. & Montes de Oca, E.(2002)Carabidbeetleassemblages(Coleoptera,Carabidae) across urbanrural gradients: an internationalcomparison.LandscapeEcology,17,387401.

Pautasso, M., BhningGaese, K., Clergeau, P., et al.(2011)Globalmacroecologyofbirdassemblagesin urbanized and seminatural ecosystems.GlobalEcologyandBiogeography,20,426436.

Ricotta,C.,LaSorte,F.A.,Pyek,P.,Rapson,G.L.,CelestiGrapow, L. & Thompson, K. (2009) Phyloecologyofurbanalienfloras.JournalofEcology,97,12431251.

Werner,P.(2011)Theecologyofurbanareasandtheirfunctions for species diversity. Landscape andEcologicalEngineering,7,231240.


mailto:[email protected]://www.birds.cornell.edu/http://www.birds.cornell.edu/mailto:[email protected]

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

9/45

ISSN19486596 newsandupdate

Communityecologytraditionallyfocusesonhypotheticaldeductive and experimental approaches

and often is criticized for narrowing our under

standingofnaturetolocalidiosyncrasies,ignoring

the importanceofhistoricalexplanations.Onthe

otherhand,approachestakenbymacroecologists

and biogeographers have been excessively ex

ploratory and correlative,with limited success in

elucidatingthemechanismsresponsible formany

of the largescalepatternsweobserve innature

(seeGaston&Blackburn1999,Ricklefs2008andreferences therein). Recognizing that both ap

proaches can learn from eachother ispivotal in

the challenge of integrating data from different

scales inordertounraveltheecologicalandevo

lutionarymechanisms that influence currentpat

ternsinbiodiversityandecosystemfunctioning.

Species richness has been the most com

monmetricused to represent allaspectsofbio

logical diversity (from genetic and taxonomic to

phenetic diversity). However, species richnessalone cannot describe the processes involved in

species coexistence and ecosystem functioning

and also does not describe properly the differ

ences in community structure. In contrast, phy

logenetic and functional diversities allow us to

understand the relative importance of species

composition in termsofevolutionaryhistoryand

ecological similarities.Phylogeneticdiversity (PD)

is a biodiversity measure that accounts for the

phylogeneticrelationship(henceevolutionaryhistory)amongspecies,whereasfunctionaldiversity

(FD) represents how species are distributed in a

multidimensionalnichespacedefinedbyecologi

caltraits.

Phylogenetic and functional approaches to

communityecologyemerged asprominent fields

of research in the lastdecade (Fig.1),butsome

how independently and without much crossover

in the first years. Early PD measures were pro

posedasa tool to select conservationareas,butlater the idea was extended to understand how

communitiesareassembledfromaregionalpool.

FD,whichinitiallywasconsideredtheholygrailofthe biodiversityecosystem functioning agenda,

alsowasrapidlyappliedasametricforinvestigat

ingassembly rules (seePavoine&Bonsall2011).

Howcouldmacroecologyandbiogeographybene

fitfromthesetwoapproaches?Theanswerliesin

understandingwhat FDandPD should represent

andhowtheyrelatetoeachother:whilephyloge

netic community ecology links evolutionary and

biogeographic history to presentday ecology,

functionaldiversity (asany traitbasedapproach)linksnichetheoryto largescaleapproaches,such

as macroecology, biogeography or phylogeogra

phy.Therefore,combiningecologicalandphyloge

neticframeworkstoexplainlargescalepatternsof

biodiversityisanimportantstep,takenrecently.

Largescalestudies involvingPDandFDseems to

be increasing at similar rates (Fig.1). Recently, it

was shown that both measures can be decom

posed into gamma (regional), alpha (local) and

beta (turnover)components.Whereas largescalestudies and anyscale studies follows a similar

trend for betaPD, there were few studies with

betaFD (noneat largescale).This isperhapsbe

cause biogeographers and macroecologists were

more aware of evolutionary and historical hy

potheses, so the conceptual framework of beta

PDwaslikelytobeabsorbedfirst.Also,thiscould

reflecttheassumptionthatcloselyrelatedspecies

should be ecologically more similar than distant

related species and, thus, PD should be a goodsurrogate for FD (in fact this is what most large

and localscale PD studies used to assume). This

traditionalassumption isnowdebated(e.g.Losos

2008),andthesetwomeasuresmaybeviewedas

complementary, rather than competing, ap

proaches (Gmez et al. 2010, DinizFilho et al.

2011, Meynard et al. 2011, Pavoine & Bonsall

2011,Safietal.2011).

WhilesomelargescalestudiesinvolvingPD

andFDareexploratory(e.g.Meynardetal.2011)others have presented hypotheses and predic

tions. Safi et al. (2011) investigated global pat


update

Beyondtaxonomicalspace:largescaleecologymeetsfunctionalandphylogeneticdiversity

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

10/45

newsandupdate

ternsofmammalPDandFDandfoundthatwhen

controllingmammal assemblages for theirevolu

tionaryhistorythetropicswerecharacterizedbya

FDdeficit.Thissuggeststhatmorespeciescanbe

closelypackedintotheecologicalspaceintropical

than in temperate regions (see figure 3 in their

paper),aparadoxical situation inwhichcompeti

tionseemsto limittraitevolution inagroup,but

does not decrease the cooccurrence of species

with similar trait values (Wiens 2011). There are

several nonmutually exclusive mechanisms that

couldberesponsibleforthispattern(seeFigure1

inSafietal.2011). In temperate regions, forex

ample, if resources are limited, species need to

occupywiderecologicalniches inordertosecure

theirenergydemandsandthereforecommunities

would show signsofoverdispersion in functional

traits. In addition, high environmental heteroge

neitycouldalso result inanoverdispersion inFD

because coexisting species could adapt and spe

cializetothedifferentenvironmentalconditions.

Some lighthasbeen shedonbetaPDpat

ternsbyGmezetal.(2010),studyingNeotropical

Forestantbirdsatdifferentspatialscales.Ifspeci

ationoccurredmainlyamongecoregions,there is

a lower probability of sister species cooccurring

in the same ecoregion, resulting in phylogenetic

evennessatthissmallerscale.Ifso,wewouldex

pecthighspeciesturnover(taxonomicbetadiver

sity) and low phylogenetic turnover (betaPD)

amongecoregions,becausespecieswouldtendto

becloserelatives.Analternativescenarioiswhen

phylogenetic structure at the regional scale is a

product of limited dispersal of lineages. In this

casewewouldexpectbothhighspeciesturnover

and high betaPD among regions, because each


Figure1.ThenumberofarticlespublishedinpeerreviewedjournalsindexedbyISIwithfunctionalandphylogeneticdiversityinthetitle,abstractorkeywordsfrom1976to2010.Anyspatialscalemeansallstudiespublishedinallsubdisciplinesofecologyandevolutionarybiology, irrespectively of scale. Large spatial scaleare those studies constrainedbythesearchexpressionTopic=(geograph*ORmacroecol*ORbiogeogr*),thatis,thosestudiesmostlikelytoberelatedtomacroecologyandbiogeography.FD=anystudywithtopicfunctionaldiversity;PD=anystudy

with topicphylogeneticdiversity;betaFD=anystudywith topicfunctionalbetadiversityorfunctional turnover;betaPD=anystudywithtopicphylogeneticdiversityorphylogeneticturnover.The inset isprovidedtoshowcurrentlystartingpublicationtrendsconcerningbetaPDandbetaFD.TherewasnolargescalestudyinvolvingbetaFDupto2010;butafewwerepublishedin2011orareinpress.

1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 20100

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

2

4

6

FD

PD

PD

FD

Any spatial scale

Large spatial scale

beta-PD

beta-FD

beta-PD

year

published

studies

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

11/45

newsandupdate

region would contain distinct clades, with inde

pendent diversifications. Finally, if observed val

uesofspeciesturnoverandbetaPDdonotdiffer

from what would be expected by chance (using

nullmodelswhere randomassemblagesarebuilt

from the speciespool),phylogenetic structureat

the regional scale is unlikely to be the result of

historicalprocesses. In that caseusingFD should

be better because nichebased processes are

more likely to explain the pattern. For example,

alongastrongenvironmentalgradientwherespe

ciesaresortedfromtheregionalpoolaccordingto

theirtraits,weexpectbothspeciesandfunctional

turnover. However, if the species pool is com

posedof ecologically similar species an indica

tion that species were sorted according to their

traitsatahigherspatialscale(forexample,dueto

a climatic filter or historical processes) we

should expect low functional turnover because

the pool already contains very similar species.

Also,intheabsenceofenvironmentalfilters,spe

ciesturnovershouldoccurindependentlyoffunc

tional turnover (Mouchet etal.2010).Neverthe

less,speciestraitsshouldhaveat leasttosome

extentsomephylogeneticsignaland,therefore,

partitioningtherelativecontributionofevolution

ary history to trait dissimilarities among species

may be important. A potential, and unexplored,

solution is to decouple functional diversity into

phylogenetic structured and specific

(ecological) components. This would help us to

betterunderstandhistoricalandrecentprocesses

onbiodiversitypatternsandassemblyrules(Diniz

Filhoetal.2011).

The ground is reasonably well settled to

start rebuilding community ecology from func

tional traits (McGill et al. 2006) and merging

community ecology with evolutionary biol

ogy (CavenderBaresetal.2009).Yes, thereare

some methodological challenges how to prop

erly define the species pool and null models,

whichtraitsshouldbeused,whatisthemostsuit

able measure of PD and FD, and so on (see

Pavoine&Bonsall2011),butweshouldavoidbe

coming locked into a blinkered debate about

methodological issues. For example, in the last

decademorethantwomeasuresofPDorFDwere

proposed, each year! This may come at the ex

pensesofthemoreimportant(andexciting)steps

ofdoing science:how canwemove forward the

theorybyusingnovelapproaches?

Allexistinghypotheses thathavebeen ap

plied to taxonomic diversity can be extended to

phylogeneticandfunctionaldiversity(Meynardet

al.2011).However,PDandFDcanbeusedtocre

atemorerigorousanddirectpredictionsformost

of thehypotheses inmacroecology andbiogeog

raphy,suchasattemptstoexplainlatitudinalpat

terns of biodiversity (Willig et al. 2003). These

metricsalsopresentanopportunity to formulate

new hypotheses abouthow species evolutionary

history and trait diversity are distributed across

communities at different scales. For example,

Wiensetal.(2011)showedsituationswhereafter

amajorevolutionaryradiationwithinaregion,the

regioncan stillbe invadedbyecologically similar

speciesfromanotherclade,challengingthepara

digm that communities are saturated. Large

scale phylogenies and trait databases are cur

rently becoming available for a wide range of

taxonomicgroups,facilitatingestimatesofFDand

PD. Including these two aspects of biological di

versitywillbecrucial ifwewanttoadvancefrom

exploratory studieswhich report interesting rela

tionships between biodiversity and environment

toalsoidentifyingtheircausalmechanisms.

Acknowledgements

IthankJoaqunHortal,ThiagoRangel,andMichael

Dawson for valuable comments on the manu

script.ThisworkwassupportedbyCAPES(project

#012/09).

MarcusV.CianciarusoDepartamentodeEcologia,InstitutodeCinciasBiol

gicas,UniversidadeFederaldeGois, Goinia,GO,

Brazil.email:[email protected];

http://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/home

References

CavenderBares, J., Kozak, K., Fine, P. & Kembel, S.

(2009) Themergingof communityecologyandphylogeneticbiology. Ecology Letters,12,693715.

mailto:[email protected]://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homehttp://www.wix.com/cianciaruso/homemailto:[email protected]

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

12/45

newsandupdate

DinizFilho,J.A.F,Cianciaruso,M.V.,Rangel,T.&Bini,L.(2011) Eigenvector estimation of phylogeneticandfunctionaldiversity.FunctionalEcology,25,735744.

Gaston, K.J. & Blackburn, T.M. (1999) A critique for

macroecology.Oikos,84,353368.Gmez, J.P.,Bravo,G.A.,Brumfield,R.T.,Tello, J.G.&Cadena,C.D.(2010)Aphylogeneticapproachtodisentangling the roleofcompetitionandhabitatfilteringincommunityassemblyofNeotropical forestbirds. Journal ofAnimal Ecology, 79,11811192.

Jenkins,D.G.&Ricklefs,R.E. (2011)Biogeographyandecology: two viewsofoneworld.PhilosophicalTransactionsof theRoyal Societyof LondonB,366,23312335.

Losos, J.B. (2008) Phylogenetic niche conservatism,

phylogenetic signal and the relationship between phylogenetic relatedness and ecologicalsimilarity among species. Ecology Letters, 11,9951003.

McGill, B.J., Enquist, B.J., Weiher, E. & Westoby, M.(2006) Rebuilding community ecology fromfunctional traits. Trends in Ecology and Evolution,21,178185.

Meynard,C.N.,Devictor,V.,Mouillot,D.,Thuiller,W.,Jiguet, F. & Mouquet, N. (2011) Beyond taxonomic diversity patterns: how do , and componentsofbirdfunctionalandphylogenetic

diversity respond to environmental gradientsacross France? Global Ecology and Biogeography,20,893903.

Mouchet,M.A.,Villger,S.,Mason,N.W.H.&Mouillot,D. (2010) Functional diversity measures: anoverviewoftheirredundancyandtheirabilitytodiscriminate community assembly rules. FunctionalEcology,24,867876.

Pavoine,S.&Bonsall,M.(2011)Measuringbiodiversityto explain community assembly: a unified approach.BiologicalReviews,86,792812.

Ricklefs, R.E. (2008) Disintegration of the ecologicalcommunity.AmericanNaturalist,172,741750.

Safi, K., Cianciaruso, M.V., Loyola, R.D., Brito, D., ArmourMarshall, K. & DinizFilho, J.A.F. (2011)Understanding global patterns of mammalianfunctional and phylogenetic diversity. PhilosophicalTransactionsoftheRoyalSocietyofLondonB,366,25362544.

Wiens,J.J.(2011)Theniche,biogeographyandspecies

interactions. Philosophical

Transactions

of

the

RoyalSocietyofLondonB,366,23362350.

Wiens, J.J., Pyron, R.A. & Moen, D.S. (2011) PhylogeneticoriginsoflocalscalediversitypatternsandthecausesofAmazonianmegadiversity.EcologyLetters,14,643652.

Willig, M.R., Kaufmann, D.M. & Stevens, R.D. (2003)Latitudinal gradients of biodiversity: pattern,process, scale and synthesis.AnnualReviewofEcology, Evolution, and Systematics, 34, 273309.

EditedbyThiagoF.Rangel


Remember thatbeingamemberof IBSmeansyoucanget freeonlineaccess to fourbiogeographyjournals:JournalofBiogeography,Ecography,GlobalEcologyandBiogeographyandDiversityandDistributions.Youcanalsoobtaina20%discountonthejournalsOikosandJournal

of

Avian

Biology.

Additionalinformationisavailableathttp://www.biogeography.org/.

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

13/45

TheWorldatlasofmangroves,anupdatetoSpal

ding et al. (1997), is amusthavepublication for

everyone lovingandworkingwith, in,ornear to

mangroves. It celebrates thewonderfulworldof

these beautiful forests with astonishing figures

and photographs. The informative maps and ta

blesprovidecaptivatingfactsabouttheecological

andeconomicvaluesofmangrovesandtheconse

quencesoftheirloss.The atlas scores with the presentation of

recent findingsoncarbonsequestration,showing

that mangroves store more carbon than tropical

forests(Donatoetal.2011);andwiththesuitabil

ityof intactmangroves forprotecting coastal re

gionsagainst tsunamis (WibisonoandSuryadipu

tra2006).Thiswillarm(withpowerfularguments)

ecologists, conservation biologists and policy

makers,whourgentlyneed to communicate this

knowledge inorder to increasepublicawarenessand political willingness to protect and rehabili

tate one of the most vulnerable ecological sys

temsonearth.

As indicatedby its title, theWorldatlasof

mangrovesgivesacomprehensiveoverviewofthe

globaldistributionofmangrovespeciesatcountry

level. A detailed description of the particular

statusofmangrove systems in each country, ac

companied by information about their specific

threats, levelofdegradation andextentof rehabilitation programs guides the reader through a

multitudeofdistinctfeatures,whilekeepingsimi

laritiesandgeneralprinciplesinmind.

Mangrove experts of international repute

contributeboxesonparticular topicsof interest,

such asmangroves responses to climate change

(Gilman,Dukeetal.)ortheirfunctioninginhighly

dynamic coastal regions (Fromard and Proisy).

They summarise uptodate research as well as

thehot topics thatwillbedeveloped in thenearfuture. In addition, the annexes containing tree

species descriptions, national species lists and

countryfactsheetsserveasanexcellentcompen

dium andmake this atlasperfect as aquickstart

guide for students as well as experienced re

searchersapproachinganewregion.

Considering the presentation of global

trendsasthemainpurposeoftheWorldAtlasOf

Mangroves, thisbook fulfilsexpectations.Unnec

essaryuncertaintiesanderrorsintheintroduction

to the ecology of mangroves leave, however, adrop ofbitterness. The first chapters (Mangrove

ecosystems andMangroves andpeople) notably

omit explicit references to any publications. The

authors state that these chapters and theboxes

therein drawheavily on the relevant literature,

but information presented is confusing or even

erroneous, and does not always reflect the con

tentofthepublications looselymentionedatthe

end of each subchapter, nor established knowl

edgeavailable intextbooks(e.g.Tomlinson1986)orextended reviews (e.g. Feller et al. 2010). For

example, the classification of mangroves into

fringing mangroves, basin mangroves, and over

washmangrovesisneedlesslyincomplete;itcould

be easily improved by following standard man

grove literature (e.g. Lugo & Snedaker 1974,

Woodroffe1992).Theheterogeneoushandlingof

outdatedtheoriesanddebatedhypothesesabout

the functioning of mangroves is also surprising.

For instance, the editors correctly do away withtheperspectivethatthe landcreatesthecapabil

ityformangroveformation,butthenpresentele

vationandthesubsequentgradientofinundation

as the only factors driving patterns of species

zonation. There are, however, four other major

hypotheses to explain this striking feature: geo

morphological influences, propagule dispersal,

predationandspeciescompetition(seee.g.Smith

III1992 fordetaileddiscussion).Furthererrors in

theclassificationofaeratingrootsandalso inthesystematicsandgeographicaldistributionofsome

mangrove species have been already listed and

newsandupdate


ISSN19486596

bookreview

AmangrovecompendiumWorldatlasofmangroves,byMarkSpalding,MamiKainumaandLornaCollins(editors)

2010,Earthscan,336pp.ISBN:9781844076574

Price:65(Hardback);http://www.earthscan.co.uk/
http://www.earthscan.co.uk/http://www.earthscan.co.uk/http://www.earthscan.co.uk/

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

14/45

discussed indetailbyDahdouhGuebas (2010). It

remains a mystery why these chaptershave not

been written or carefully revised by the leading

mangrove experts mentioned above, or the nu

merousotherswhocontributedtothisbookwith

specificboxes.

This volume appears 14 years afterMan

groves Theforgottenforest between land and

sea(Mastaller1997). Itseemsthattheworldhas

changedandthe forgotten foresthasbeenredis

covered.Obviouslyneitherthesimpleexistenceof

this remarkable ecosystem, nor its fascinating

functioningbasedonadaptationtotheharshcon

ditionsof tidalzones,weresufficient toconvince

people that it is worth protecting mangroves

againstaquaculture,agriculture, landuseandthe

many types of waste water we produce. The

monetary expression of the value of mangroves

(US$20009000ha1yr1according to the statis

tics in thisbook), and the change from the eco

logical perspective to the human perspective in

termsofcoastalprotectionagainsthurricanesand

tsunamis and in carbon sequestration, is neces

sary to improve public awareness about the im

portanceofmangroves forourpresent lifeanda

criticalpartofour response to the challengesof

environmental changes, including sea level rise

andclimatechange.TheWorldatlasofmangroves

is a strong contribution towards this goal and, I

hope,anothersteptowardsusheringinanewera

where mangroves are valued for their beauty in

thesamewayasmanyrainforestsorcoralreefs.

Insummary, ifyouareworking in the field

ofmangroveconservationorrelated issues inthe

contextoftropicalcoastalzones,orifyourworkis

targeted towards practitioners, stakeholders or

usersofatriskmangroveecosystemservices,the

Worldatlasofmangrovesisyourbook;itwillsup

port yourdailyworkwitheasytounderstand in

formation and strong facts about the ecological

and economic values of this forest. If you are a

mangrove ecologist, thisbook should alsobeon

your shelf because it provides you with a quick

overview of mangrove distribution and current

statusonEarth.Italsoactsasanenormoussource

of suitablemaps andmaterial to roundoff your

lectures.Thisshouldconvinceyour students that

mangrove research is a challenge, an urgentde

mand formankind and thatbeing involved is an

accolade.Ontheotherhand,ifyouarelookingfor

a general text spanning the interdisciplinary as

pectsofmangroveecology,thisisnotthebookfor

you.Therootsofthisbooklargelycomefromge

ographyandremotesensing. Ifyouaresearching

foranuptodatetextaboutthepresentscientific

understanding and recent findings in mangrove

research, I recommend supplementing the atlas

with textbooks, recent reviews or more detailed

publications on mangrove ecosystems and peo

plesdepencyontheirhealthandfunctioning.

UtaBergerInstitutfrWaldwachstumundForstlicheInformatik,TechnischeUniversittDresden


http://www.forst.tudresden.de/SystemsAnalysis/uta berger

References

DahdouhGuebas,F.(2011)WorldAtlasofMangroves:MarkSpalding,MamiKainumaandLornaCollins(eds).HumanEcology,39,107109.

Donato,D.C.,Kauffman,J.B.,Murdiyarso,D.,Kurnianto,

S., Stidham, M. & Kanninen, M. (2011) Mangroves among the most carbonrich forests inthetropics.NatureGeoscience,4,293297.

Feller,I.C.,Lovelock,C.E.,Berger,U.,McKee,K.L.,Joye,S.B.&Ball,M.C. (2010).Biocomplexity inMangrove Ecosystems. Annual Review of MarineScience,2,395417.

Lugo,A.E.&Snedaker,S.C.(1974).Theecologyofmangroves.AnnualReviewofEcologyandSystematics,5,3964.

Mastaller,M.(1997)Mangrovestheforgottenforestbetween landandsea.TropicalPressSdn.BhD.

KualaLumpur,Malaysia.189pp.

Smith III, Th.J. (1992). Forest Structure. In: Tropicalmangroveecosystems(ed.byA.I.RobertsonandD.M. Alongi), pp.101136. American GeophysicalUnion,Washington.

Spalding,M.,Blasco,F.&Field,C.(1997).Worldmangrove atlas. The International Society forMangroveEcosystems,Okinawa,Japan.178pp.

Tomlinson,P.B.(1986).Thebotanyofmangroves.CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge,UK.419pp.

Wibisono,I.T.C. & Suryadiputra, N.N. (2006). Study oflessons learned frommangrove/coastalecosystem restoration efforts in Aceh since the tsunami. Wetlands International Indonesia Programme,Bogor.86pp.

newsandupdate

mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.forst.tu-dresden.de/SystemsAnalysis/uta-bergerhttp://www.forst.tu-dresden.de/SystemsAnalysis/uta-bergerhttp://www.forst.tu-dresden.de/SystemsAnalysis/uta-bergerhttp://www.forst.tu-dresden.de/SystemsAnalysis/uta-bergerhttp://www.forst.tu-dresden.de/SystemsAnalysis/uta-bergerhttp://www.forst.tu-dresden.de/SystemsAnalysis/uta-bergermailto:[email protected]

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

15/45

Woodroffe,C.D.(1992).Mangrovesedimentsandgeomorphology. In: Tropicalmangrove ecosystems(ed. by A.I. Robertson and D.M. Alongi),pp.741.AmericanGeophysicalUnion,Washington.

EditedbyMarkusEichhorn

newsandupdate


bookreview

A comprehensive foundation for theapplicationofbiogeographytoconservationConservationbiogeography,byRichardJ.LadleandRobertJ.Whittaker(editors)

2011,BlackwellPublishing,301pp.ISBN:9781444335033

Price:95(Hardback)/34.95(Paperback);http://eu.wiley.com/

It isbecoming increasinglyclearthatthediversity

of plant and animal species in the world is con

tinuingtodeclineinspiteofambitioustargetsset

by governments to prevent this (Butchart et al.

2010).Itisalsobecomingevidentthatthecontin

ued functioning of ecosystems depends on this

diversity (Isbelletal.2011). Inorder toconserve

whatisleftofbiodiversity,itiscrucialthatweun

derstandthediversityoflifeandhowitisdistrib

uted across the biomes and ecosystems of the

world.Sinceunderstandingthedistributionofbio

diversity is a central tenet of biogeography, it

seems obvious that the field of biogeography

shouldbeofcentralimportanceinconservation.

In this volume, Richard Ladle and Robert

Whittakerbringtogetherchaptersbyanumberof

biogeographerstosummariseprogresstodate in

applyingtheprinciplesofbiogeographytoconser

vation and to identify areas where there is still

worktobedone.Thebookisacomprehensivebut

digestible summary of the field of conservation

biogeographyandshouldmakeessentialreading,

notonly for the studentsatwhom it isprimarily

aimed, but also for more experienced scientists.

Theeditorsprofessattheoutsetthattheaimwas

to achieve a degree of coherence among the

chapters,anaimthat isachievedremarkablywell

togiveaverycoherenttext.

Thefirstsectionofthebookprovidesabrief

but interestinghistoryof theconservationmove

mentandthecontrastingvaluesheldbydifferent

sectorsof thismovement (Chapters2 and3), as

wellassomebackgroundtothefieldofconserva

tion biogeography (Chapter 1). A distinction is

madebetweenapproachesthatfocusonthecom

positionofbiologicalcommunitiesandthosethat

focus on ecosystem function through an under

standingofecosystemprocessessuchasnutrient

cycling(p.31).Aninterestingandgrowingfieldin

ecology, which receives little attention in the

book,uses the functional traitsof species to ex

plainthelinkbetweenthecompositionofbiologi

cal communities and the functionof the ecosys

temsthatcontainthem.Functionaltraitssuchas

bodymass,diet,habitataffinityanddevelopment

modeof animals, andheight andphotosynthetic

pathwayofplantscanhelpexplainhowspecies

contribute to theprocessesunderlying the func

tioningofecosystemsandcanalsohelpinpredict

ing how ecosystems will respond to environ

mentalchange(McGilletal.2006).

Thesecondsectionreviewsourcurrentun

derstanding of the distribution of biodiversity,

summarises the history of the global protected

areas network and describes the methods avail

able for more systematically representing biodi

versityinfutureextensionstothisnetwork.There

isastrongterrestrialfocushere, indeedthrough

out the entirety of the book, which the authors

acknowledge and which is owing to a less com

pleteunderstandingofthedistributionofdiversity

in the oceans and in freshwater habitats. It is

worthnoting, though, that theCensusofMarine

Life, an ambitious $650 million project that fin

ished recently, hasmadehugeprogress towards

understanding the biogeography of the oceans

ISSN19486596
http://eu.wiley.com/http://eu.wiley.com/http://eu.wiley.com/

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

16/45

(e.g.seeTittensoretal.2010).Evenintheterres

trial realm, knowledge about the number and

identityof theworlds speciesandhow theyare

distributed remains very far from complete: the

Linnaean and Wallacean shortfalls respectively

(Chapter 4). A recent paper (Joppa et al. 2011)

addressedbothoftheseknowledgegapssimulta

neously by predicting the spatial distribution of

undiscovered plant species, predicting that most

newplant specieswillbediscovered in areas al

readyidentifiedashotspotsofplantdiversity,em

phasising the importanceof theseareas for con

servation. Chapter 5 provides an excellent sum

mary of the many different types of protected

areas intheglobalnetworkandthedifferentval

uesthatunderpinthese,whileChapter6provides

ausefulandsuccinctreviewoftheenormousand

evergrowing literature on systematic conserva

tionplanning.

Thethirdsectionofthebookdescribeshow

thetoolsofbiogeographycanbeusedtoplanfor

environmentalchange inconservation.This isthe

onlypartof thebookwherethechaptersappear

somewhatdisjointed,butthisisprobablyowingto

the attempt to summarise a vast literature in a

verysmallnumberofchapters.Nevertheless,the

chapters inthissectionprovideexcellentdescrip

tionsofsomeoftheavailablemethods,fromphe

nomenological models that infer future changes

fromcurrentpatterns(Chapter7)tomoreprocess

basedmodels thatuse the theoryof islandbio

geographytopredicttheconsequences forbiodi

versityofshrinkingandincreasinglyisolatednatu

ral habitat patches (Chapter 8). Chapter 9 deals

with invasive species, which are an important

driverofenvironmental change,and thehomog

enisationofbiological communities, i.e. the ero

sionofbetadiversity.Mostofthestudiesinvesti

gating broadscale patterns of diversity have fo

cusedoninventorydiversity,commonlymeasured

as species richness, and it is only recently that

studieshaveattemptedtomapbetadiversity(e.g.

McKnight et al. 2007) and to relate it to spatial

and environmental factors (e.g. Ferrier et al.

2007).

Withagrowingneedtounderstandchanges

in the natural environment and the impact of

these changes on human society, the emerging

fieldofconservationbiogeography is likelytobe

comeincreasinglyimportantinprovidingthenec

essary theoretical basis and tools for doing so.

This book provides an excellent foundation for

that fieldand ishighly recommended reading for

students,scientistsandpractitionersofconserva

tion.

TimNewboldUnitedNationsEnvironmentProgrammeWorldCon

servationMonitoringCentre,Cambridge,UKemail:[email protected];

http://www.unepwcmc.org/timnewbold_368.html

References

Butchart,S.H.M.,Walpole,M.,Collen,B.etal. (2010).Globalbiodiversity:indicatorsofrecentdeclines.Science,328,11641168.

Isbell, F., Calcagno, V., Hector, A. et al. (2011). Highdiversity is needed to maintain ecosystem services.Nature,477,199202.

Joppa,L.N.,Roberts,D.L.,Myers,N.etal.(2011).Biodiversityhotspotshousemostundiscoveredplantspecies.ProceedingsoftheNationalAcademyofSciences of the United States of America 108,1317113176.

McGill, B.J., Enquist, B.J., Weiher, E. & Westoby, M.(2006). Rebuilding community ecology fromfunctionaltraits.Trends inEcology&Evolution,21,178185.

McKnight, M.W., White, P.S., McDonald, R.I., Lamoreux, J.F.,Sechrest,W.,Ridgely,R.S.&Stuart,S.N. (2007).Puttingbetadiversity on themap:

broadscale congruenceandcoincidence in theextremes.PLoSBiology,5,e272.

Tittensor,D.P.,Mora,C., Jetz,W., Lotze,H.K.,Ricard,D.,VandenBerghe,E.&Worm,B.(2010).Globalpatterns and predictors of marine biodiversity acrosstaxa.Nature,466,10981101.


newsandupdate


OneofthebenefitsopentoIBSmembersistheopportunitytohavejobopeningspostedonthe

IBSblog(http://biogeography.blogspot.com/).Ifyouhaveapositionyouwouldliketohaveadvertised, please contact Karen Faller ([email protected]) or Michael Dawson([email protected])withdetails.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.unep-wcmc.org/tim-newbold_368.htmlhttp://www.unep-wcmc.org/tim-newbold_368.htmlhttp://www.unep-wcmc.org/tim-newbold_368.htmlhttp://www.unep-wcmc.org/tim-newbold_368.htmlhttp://www.unep-wcmc.org/tim-newbold_368.htmlhttp://www.unep-wcmc.org/tim-newbold_368.htmlmailto:[email protected]

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

17/45

newsandupdate


Despite existing in some form formanydecades

(Davis2005), invasionecology/biology is inmany

waysanascentandemergingfield,and isstillen

genderingdiscussionregardingwhether it indeed

trulyexistsasafieldordiscipline in itsownright,

or is ratheraparticularly focusedaspectofcom

munityecologyorbiogeography(e.g.Marris2009,

PyekandHulme2009).Aswithmanyecological

disciplines, invasionecologyhas seen fundamentaldisagreementsoveraspectsrangingfromcore

definitions (including invasion itself; Falk

Petersenetal.2006,RicciardiandCohen2007)to

level of scientific objectivity (e.g. Larson 2007).

Thefieldisatastageinitsdevelopmentwhere(1)

dedicatedjournalsexist (e.g.Biological Invasions)

and there is a substantial number of academic

articles published every year (for example a

searchof invasivespecies inWebofKnowledge

returns1181articlespublished in2010alone),2)thereisclearandsignificantinternationalinterest

andaction in relation to invasionsand (3)anex

tendedpeercommunityisinvolvedinresearching

andmanagingthethreatofinvasivespecies,from

worldleading academics at researchintensive

universitiestolocalgovernmentandconservation

volunteers.Theresultoftheburgeoning informa

tionandunevenlevelsofunderstandingandfocus

across the peer community is confusion and un

certainty,rightfromthefundamentals(whatisaninvasivespeciesexactly,andwhyisitinvasive?)to

thespecifics(whatisthebesttechniqueforreduc

ing populations of Crassula helmsii in my pond,

andhowdoesthatdifferfrommanagingspreadin

the local lake?).Thetime is ripe therefore foran

encyclopaediasuchasthisonebyDanielSimber

loffandMarcelRejmnek to formabaseline for

futuredefinitionsanddiscussions.

Thebook isoneofUniversityofCalifornia

PressEncyclopediasof

the

Natural

World series,

andaswiththeothervolumeshasawiderangeof

entriesthatareeffectivelyshortessaysorsumma

riesofkeytopicsrelating (inthiscase)tobiologi

cal invasions,without citationsbutwith relevant

further reading at the end. The entries vary in

length from 1 to 8pages, andoften incorporate

usefulfiguresandoccasionallytables.Thebookis

impressively glossy (all figures are in full colour)

andwellpresented,whichisallthemoreremark

able considering the relativelymodestprice.The

editors, Daniel Simberloff and Marcel Rejmnek,are leading invasionecologistsandarewellquali

fied to compile such a text; this is reflected not

justinthebroadrangeofwellselectedtopicsthat

thevolume includes(ofwhichthereare153)but

also the rollcall of esteemed contributors that

havesuppliedtheentries(ofwhichthereare197,

manyofthemhighprofile internationalresearch

ers). Thebook is aimed notjust at an academic

audience, however, and the articles are written

withtheinterestedandeducatedgeneralpublicinmind.

Theindividualarticlescovervariousaspects

of invasions,ranging fromparticularattributesof

invasive species and invaded ecosystems to im

pacts and management, interesting case studies

andhistoricalperspectives.Clearly it isnotpossi

bletocoveralloftheentries inareviewsuchas

this,butIdidfindseveralarticlesespeciallyinter

esting, particularly because they highlight the

many socioecological factors that complicateourrelationshipswithpotentiallyproblematicspecies.

TheentryonXenophobiaforexampledoesanex

cellentjobofsummarisinghowsocietysrelation

shipwithnonnativespeciesisconstructedincer

tainwaysby theuseof loaded termsor cultural

metaphors, forexample thenegativepersonifica

tion of zebra mussels as outlaws on the west

coast of the US, or the badging of harmful or

distasteful species with appellations that note

their foreign status (Japaneseknotweed,Chinesemitten crab, English sparrow and so on). As a

startingpoint foradiscussionof scientificobjec

bookreview

AnewencyclopediaforbiologicalinvasionsEncyclopediaofbiologicalinvasions,byDanielSimberloffandMarcelRejmnek(editors)

2011,UniversityofCaliforniaPress,792pp.ISBN:9780520264212

PriceUS$95(Hardbackorebook);http://www.ucpress.edu/

ISSN19486596
http://www.ucpress.edu/http://www.ucpress.edu/http://www.ucpress.edu/

8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

18/45

tivity related to invasionbiology it works excep

tionallywell,andisexactlytherightsizefordiges

tionbystudentsorinterestedamateurs.

Indeed,oneofthebestusesIfindforrefer

ence works such as these are as opening forays

intotopicsforclassdiscussions,whetheratgradu

ate or undergraduate level. Good examples in

clude the entry on Succession, which very effec

tivelyandconciselysummariseskeyconceptsthat

take up whole chapters in many textbooks, and

although invasion biology is only addressed to

wards the end, it is clear how the two link to

gether. Likewise, thediscussiononNative invad

ers, in which issues of invasive terminologies

(andwhen they are appropriate) are covered, is

excellentlywrittenand illuminatingata rangeof

levels,particularly in relation to themanyexam

ples of invasion given. Certainly students and

researchersnewtothesubjectwillhaveanyinitial

confusion over what is meant by invasions dis

pelledbythearticle,and itwillalsohelpthemto

think objectively about whether a species really

maybeconsideredinvasiveornot.Allofthearti

clesIreadthroughwereofahighqualityandwell

written/edited, with very little wasted space for

suchalargevolume(althoughonoccasionfigures

arenotalwaysrelevantImnotsurewhyanim

age of Frank Buckland physicking a por

poise(page2)isworthyofinclusionforexample,

despitehisroleinfoundingthemainUKacclimati

sationsociety).

Ofcourse, it isalwayshardtogettheright

balance between conciseness and detail in such

entries, and to retain the relevant focus. The

opening entry,Acclimatisation societies is a case

inpoint:thearticledoesanexcellentjobofsum

marisingthedevelopmentand impactofsuchso

cietiesindifferentcountries,manyofwhichwere

responsible for the introduction of significant

numbersofnonnative species around the globe

beforedyingout in the faceof increasing legisla

tion, awareness of ecological risk from introduc

tionsand lackof interestfromthegeneralpublic.

The article elegantly conveys how originally be

nevolent intentions, such as the introduction of

nonnatives to improve food resources, control

pests and to soothe homesick colonists (among

otherreasons),inmostcasesfailedtoberealised

and also (with some notable exceptions) that

manysocietieswereunsuccessfulinactuallynatu

ralisingmany species at all.Butmuch is leftun

said: in some cases one is left wanting to know

more about whether species referred to as

released became naturalised, whether regions

suchasSouthAmericamaintainedanysuchsocie

ties (these countries are ignored, while others

suchasGermanyand Italy receiveonlyone sen

tence)andultimatelywhethersuchsocietiesindi

rectly provided evidence to force their own dis

continuation.Asatastertowhettheappetite,the

articlesucceedsverywell (andrelevantbookson

the subject are provided in the Further Reading

section),butitisnotanauthoritative,encyclopae

dicsummaryinitself.

Aswithanyvast topic,coveringallaspects

inasinglevolumeisdifficultinthiscasethereis

differential coverage of ecosystems (e.g. entries

forcanals, lakes,riversandwetlands,butnocov

erage of urban ecosystems, despite these being

importantpointsofintroductionforsomeinvasive

taxa);hypotheses(e.g.EnemyReleaseHypothesis,

Novel Weapons Hypothesis, but no Tens Rule);

geographical areas (Australia, the Great Lakes,

Hawaiian islands, theMediterranean, the Ponto

Caspian,NewZealandandSouthAfrica receivea

particular focus) and species (good examples of

somekeyspeciesorgroupssuchaszebramussel,

earthworms and fishes, but understandably not

comprehensivecoverage).This isentirely reason

able, and is not a criticismof the volume it is

impossibletocoverthevastrangeoftopicsasso

ciatedwithbiologicalinvasionsinsufficientdepth

in a single volume, and the material that is in

cluded is impressive.Thedivisionofthebookbe

tween invaderattributes,processes,taxa,ecosys

tems,pathwaystoinvasionandsoon isverywell

doneandrepresentsahugeeffortonthepartof

theeditors,forwhichtheyshouldberoundlycon

gratulated. Iwouldencourage considerationofa

secondvolume,however,at leastwith regard to

keyconceptsandhypotheses.Theopeningguide

to theEncyclopedianotes that there isawebsite

witha listofarticles, sampleentriesand so,and

notesthatthesitewillevolvewiththeadditionof

newsandupdate


8/2/2019 FBv03i03 All

19/45

newsandupdate


The Neotropics leave an indelible impression on

everyonewhovisits them.The seedsof someof

themost importantconcepts inecologyandevo

lutionweresownduringtheSouthAmericantrav

elsof influential19thcentury thinkers.Forexam

ple,the latitudinalgradientofdiversity,nowrec

ognized as ecologys oldest pattern (Hawkins,

2001),wasfirstidentifiedbyvonHumboldt,while

Batesdocumentedthevarietyandadaptationsof

species in Amazonian forests, and Wallace and

Darwinponderedthemechanismsresponsiblefor

the myriad forms of life they encountered. Al

though theNeotropicshaveplayeda crucial role

in our understanding of the diversity of life on

earth,inmanywaystheycontinuetorepresentan

unexploredfrontier.Thisisparticularlyclearinthe

caseofNeotropical freshwater fish,agroupesti

matedtoconsistofmorethan7000species,and

thataccountsforoverhalfthefreshwaterfishon

theplanetandaround10%ofallvertebratespe

cies.

JamesAlbertandRobertoReisgoalasedi

torsoftheHistoricalBiogeographyofNeotropical

FreshwaterFishes is toexamine theevolutionary

forces responsible for this diversity. In doing so

theymakethecasethatmultipleprocessesofdi

versification were involved and that these oper

atedoverlongperiodsoftimeaswellasonacon

tinental scale.Thebook itself isdivided into two

parts, the firstofwhichexamines currentknowl

edgeonthebiogeographyoftheregion,whilethe

second isaregionalanalysisthat linkscontempo

rarygeographicalpatternswithgeologicalhistory.

The book is ambitious in scope and brings to

getherpreviously fragmentedmaterialtoprovide

anauthoritativeoverviewofthisimpressivegroup

offish.AndwhileafisheyeviewoftheNeotropi

cal ichthyofauna is inevitablydrawn to theAma

bookreview

ApiscinehistoryoftheNeotropics

HistoricalbiogeographyofNeotropicalfreshwaterfishes,byJ.S.AlbertandR.R.Reis (editors)2011,UniversityofCaliforniaPress,408pp.ISBN:9780520268685

Price59(Hardback);http://www.ucpress.edu/

new information, p. xxii). The web address has

sincechangedandIwasunabletolocatethenew

one.ThoughIhappilyagreethatthiscouldpoten

tiallybeaveryuseful resource,given the rapidly

changing environmentof the internet, thepubli

cationofasecondvolumewouldperhapsbe the

mostreliableoption.

In summary, this is an excellent reference

work that combines readability with academic

rigourthroughout.Itsbroadcoverageofthefield,

high quality of production and reasonable price

makes itanessentialpurchase foranyuniversity

withdepartments teachingor researchingwithin

thebroadspectrumofecology,aswellasforindi

vidualresearchersofspeciesinvasions.

RobertA.FrancisDepartmentofGeography,KingsCollegeLondon

email:[email protected];http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/

staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961

References

Davis, M.A. (2005) Invasion biology 19582004: thepursuitofscienceandconservation.In:Conceptual ecology and invasions biology: reciprocalapproaches to nature (ed. by Cadotte, W.M,

McMahon, S.M. and Fukami, T.) , pp. 3564.KluwerPublishers,London.

FalkPetersen, J.,Bhn,T.&Sandlund,O.T. (2006)Onthenumerousconceptsininvasionbiology.BiologicalInvasions,8,14091424.

Larson, B.M.H. (2007) An alien approach to invasivespecies:objectivityandsociety in invasionbiology.BiologicalInvasions,9,947956.

Marris,E.(2009)Theendoftheinvasion?Nature,459,327328.

Pysek,P.&Hulme,P.E.(2009)Invasionbiologyisadisciplinethatstooyoungtodie.Nature,460,324

324.Ricciardi,A.&Cohen, J. (2007)The invasivenessofan

introduced speciesdoesnotpredict its impact.BiologicalInvasions,9,309315.


ISSN19486596
http://www.ucpress.edu/mailto:[email protected]://rg.kcl.ac.uk/staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961http://rg.kcl.ac.uk/staffprofiles/staffprofile.php?pid=1961mailto:[email protected]://www.ucpress

fbv03i03 all

Documents