Where we are going today..

• Announcements– Buy Niedenthal books please!– Quiz next Tuesday on physical geography of

Pacific

• Biogeography and Pacific Environments

• Movie on marine environment of Palau

Vicariance: by drift and sea level changeNZ, Fiji, New Caledonia, PNG, Solomons

Biogeography is the study of the spatial distribution of life forms and the processes that create those distributions.

Dispersal: everywhere- but exclusively In oceanic islands.

Vicariance: by drift and sea level changeNZ, Fiji, New Caledonia, PNG, Solomons

Biogeography is the study of the spatial distribution of life forms and the processes that create those distributions.

Dispersal: everywhere- but exclusively In oceanic islands.

Endemism…

• A species that exists only in the one place.

• Generally very high in island pacific

Montane Rainforest

Cloud forest

Lowland RainforestLeeward/shrubland

Freshwater Wetland

MangroveAtoll / strand

Wind direction

“new land”Volcanism

Secondary forests and succession

Montane Rainforest

Cloud forest

Lowland RainforestLeeward/shrubland

Freshwater Wetland

MangroveAtoll / strand

Wind direction

Ocean Ecology

See also p. 115

See also p. 110 in book.

Mangrove and Coral Reefs

Disease Ecology

Disease Ecology

Ok, so that’s what Pacific environments used to look like,

but…

• Exotic plants / Agriculture

• Urbanization

• Complete devastation

• Exotic animals

• Heavy use of marine resources

Taro

Breadfruit

Pandanus

Introduced species..

GiantSnails

Threats and changes to to marine ecology

• Development and use of the coastlines

• Dams, upstream chemical contamination

• Overfishing (size effect)

• Dynamite and cyanide fishing

• Coral bleaching (warming climate)

• Introduced species, predatory species (crown-of-thorns starfish)

Threats to marine areas:

Overview…

• Some patterns….

• Richest areas of productivity and species are in the western pacific and decreases as you go east.

• Richest at conjunction of land, air and water and gets less from there. (sea grasses, reefs and mangroves)

• The more ecological niches, the more species.