Biogeography Trans 3 and 4
condition or very low nutrients so it would
Distribution of
Species and
Community
several factors affecting distribution of
life here on earth
1. physical parameters
● temperature
● soil or more specifically soil type or soil
moisture
● insolation and day length
● Salinity
● pressure and light penetration
● water availability and tides and etc
Temperature
● so for all among all of these physical
parameters that affects the distribution of
life here on earth i would say that
temperature would be the primary driving
force of the distribution that we see today
● it's one of the most influential factors that
drive the distribution of life on earth so this
is partly because there are certain
organisms that can't thrive uncertain
temperature so there are organisms that
can survive or adapted in the cold climate
and there are organisms that are adapted
on your very arid and very hot regions well
of course there are cosmopolitan organisms
Cosmopolitan organisms - that are distributed
evenly among all the temperature
● but there are certain organisms that well
can't survive on certain temperature ranges
● how these different physical parameters
would affect the present distribution of
organism that we have today
● Soil
soil type - it's the different soil composition and
different ratios of your sand clay and silt and
different nutrients too that is present on your soil
● if the soil is acidic or it has high metal
content or
● if the soil has for example ultramafic
drive the survival of your pitcher plant
because they can create or outsource other
nutrients from trapping in insects so things
like that
Insolation
Insulation- it is basically the incident solar radiation
onto some object now specifically the measure of
solar energy that is on a certain area for a certain
period of time how would that affect the
distribution of organism
Day length
day length for specifically for your plants and your
organisms that are nocturnal and
Salinity Gradient
● of course, we all know salinity gradient
there are species that can live on well low
salinity brine solution and very high salinity
things like that
Physical Geographical factors: Philippines
description of for the context of the Philippines the
different physical geographical factors that would be
affecting your distribution of life here in the
Philippines
Take away
● the takeaway from that lecture is that well
for the first part primate and the prevailing
winds the amihan habagat and the
typhoons would predict the species
distribution
● and number two is that sometimes
geography of the area or the placement of
your mountains your rivers would intend
change your climate type too no according
to the corona system now the type 1 type 2
2 type 4 system here in the Philippines
● some of this physical geographical
processes are also a product of those years
and years millions of years of geological
histories that led to the creation of the area
A. Climate and Habitats
● climate and habitats would also affect the
different species distribution that we see
today
● so if you have differences in mean annual
temperature or and mean annual rainfall for
certain areas meaning different climates
● for the case of the Philippines will have
different of course different types of
vegetation in that area and with different
types of vegetation there would also be
different types of organisms that will be
found both insects and your higher
mammals, small mammals your bats for
example
● more importantly the presence of different
typhoon patterns as we can see here would
create disturbances in your area that would
definitely lead to differences in
distributional patterns that we will see
● if you have more or less more typhoons in
this area it would create more disturbance
and would well in turn create some
successional themes in the distribution of
life it would create those event chance
events for organisms to colonize
● when there are there's a typhoon uh well
for example a forest patch could be cleared
well if the typhoon was it's really strong
would it get clear certain area and would
offer a new area for recolonization of other
organism a chance for other organisms to
recolonize certain things like that as
● compared to areas that don't experience
much disturbance it would create more or
less well established climax species no
especially for the case of your habitats it's
well for the case of your habitat it would be
very important too and in conservation it
would be better to protect the habitats than
the organism itself because these different
habitats if you have marshes you have
mossy type forests mountain forests if you
have a lot of those things a lot of those
habitats it could harbor different organisms
it could actually increase the number of
species that you can find in that certain area
so for conservation it would be much
profitable if we protect this habitat than the
species itself and
● it is much more important to protect the
habitats because these habitats provide
those uh platform for organism to thrive in
and of course if you have more habitats
different habitat types it could harbor more
species and therefore affecting your species
distribution
Mountains
● so for the case of your mountains in
here in the Philippines we have well
different altitudinal ranges of your
forest type so if you have a very high
mountains for example in mount data
and here in mount pulag you can see
changes in vegetation time
● we have mossy forest type on the upper
portion and mountain forest followed
by the mountain forest and the lowland
forest and if you go closer to your to the
beaches in the coastlines you could also
observe different mangrove habitats
and beach forests with different
organisms too that are that can be
found there so the
● important thing with high elevations
and this different habitat different
vegetation type that you can see here is
that there would be differences know in
the temperature as you go up as you go
higher and higher there would be a
decrease in temperature and that could
pose certain well chance for a
temperate climate no to evolve or to be
established and therefore hardware
different organism in that too no
Differences in vegetation
● differences in well in your vegetation and in
your temperature could also create your
elevational diversity patterns in your small
mammals too it would create differences in
pattern across this elevational gradient so
as you can see here in this slide certain
species can be found in certain elevations
while some species are not found on certain
areas so there could be certain speciation
event and endemism that can happen due
to the preferences of this species on your
elevation
 ● there is a certain diversity patterns too for ● all of this all of this are intrinsic to the
your small mammals organism meaning it's the natural ability. It’s
inherent or in the species itself

Dispersal ability

B. Intrinsic Properties of the

organism
● Influenced by
- Geographic range
- Habitat tolerance
- Population size

commonality and rarity of organism

Commonality - when we say commonality the
commonness of organism
- is that organism common across different
regions of the world meaning it has
cosmopolitan distribution
- like for example your ipis and rats
Rarity - meaning the rareness of your organism
- is it endemic to certain areas of the
Philippines?
● we have actually a high rate of endemicity
here in the Philippines that's why we are a
biodiversity hot spot
● commonality and rarity of your organism is
of course in turn affected or a result of the
differences in the intrinsic property you
know the organism itself
● so different organism of course has different
geographic ranges so certain organism can
only be found in certain areas
● and certain organisms also have certain
habitat tolerance (can only be found on
marshes or can only be found on your
mountains)
● and some organisms are common because
there are many of them and some are rare
because there are few of them in nature or
they are near in extinction actually
● aside from the commonality and rarity of
your organism we also have the different
dispersal ability of your organism
● different organisms have different dispersal
rate
● some organisms of course are adapted to
wind dispersion and since they are adapted
to dispersion by wind, they are far more
easily but some also trick us no humans by
creating fruits so they by creating fruits
they actually well trick us into scattering
their seeds
● different intrinsic ability of and adaptations
of your organisms could create different
diverse distribution patterns of them
● if you have an organism that is highly
dispersed you can find them anywhere the
inherent dispersibility of your organism
how good it is to be dispersed
● but aside from that even after say for
example the organism has this high ability
to be dispersed okay let's say it can be
dispersed easily but it's not just that no it's
not just being dispersed you also need to
be to acquire a foothold or to be
established in that specific area that you
have been thrown on
● for example, your seed has been dispersed
and it landed on certain soil it would stop
there, it would also need to be established
in that area no this is very true for certain
invasive species they can easily be
 dispersed and when they arrive at that
location, they can have a great foothold
and be established on that area and they
can florify
● but certain species unlike your invasive
species can't do that that's why their
distribution is quite limited it's not just the
different ability of your organism it's
different tolerances it's not just the
dispersal ability of your organism it also
includes the ability of the organism to be
established and of course all of this ability
that is intrinsic to the organism are a
product of your biological processes in that
organism the genetic material of the
organism
● the mutation rate of the organism could
also provide variations and this variation
we all know could fuel the evolution of
characters if certain mutation could create
a highly dispersive organism, it could be
triumphant and could colonize the entire
world
C. Extrinsic properties (Rules of
ecology and population
dynamics, & etc.)
● it's a certain fact that these processes of
your population dynamics could create
changes in your distribution of organism
● how so? say for example an organism if that
organism doesn't have a reasonable number
of individuals, it can't colonize certain areas
if it doesn't have the genetic vigor in the
first place it can't establish itself
● actually, the population that we're talking
about here needs to have a certain degree
of healthiness certain degree of number
before it can spread no before it can
colonize certain areas
● for example, the density of your organism
the population dynamics the interplay
between the different processes that results
to the number of organisms so we have the
birth rate the immigration would well
increase the amount of population in that
area and of course the emigration and debt
would in turn decrease the population size
in that area and the healthiness of this
population or the presence of other
population outside the area could in turn
change the distribution
● we all know that there are different chance
events that could kill certain area certain
species in an area and if there are
representative of that species in other area
that doesn't experience such life-changing
event, life killing event it would survive still
● your population can be regulated and
limited by different factors we have the
density dependent and the density
independent factors
Density Dependent - when we say density
dependent when you have a higher population size
the effect of these factors can be much higher
Density Independent - for the case of your
density independent, the population size does not
matter the effect of natural disaster and unusual
weather events or any killing event no any
environmental events can be the same can be the
same effect all throughout no matter how many the
organism are

Limiting Factors – all of these factors are of
course are of course a product of your ecology
that's why the study of the distribution of organism
is not just a simple physical parameter, it’s not just
that it also includes the different underlying
ecological concepts that are in play
● specifically, the population dynamics would
come into play in fruition in reasoning out
why certain species are distributed this way
and also in line with your ecological
processes that affect the population and in
turn affect its distribution
Competition
● competition specifically for competition
because if certain organism is to be
established it needs to out-compete the
existing organism that is present in the area
● this is very true for certain organisms the
invasive species it needs to out-compete the
other organism that is already established in
that area for it to play on the other side of
that coin would be mutualism
Mutualism
● when we say mutualism the different
interactions of your organism both
beneficial to them and this would also
increase not just it's not always competition
there would also be a helping team
● we when you have mutualism it could
benefit both of them and if they are
benefiting from each other, they could be
more successful and therefore colonize
more area
The conundrum between competitive
exclusion principle and the coexistence
of your organisms
Phytoplankton
● if you think about for example, say your
marine phytoplankton so for a certain
species a very competitive species it is
better for it to produce and produce and
outcompete every organism so if that's the
case there would be less species in the
marine phytoplankton communities
because a certain organism could
out-compete all the rest if that organism is
a very fit individual and if that organism has
the ability to out-compete all of those other
species right there
● but that's not what we see in the natural
setting in the phytoplankton communities.
What we can see what we have observed is
that there is actually more species than it is
predicted by the competitive exclusion
principle because in the natural setting it is
much more beneficial if there is coexistence
between different species but the reason
behind that is not quite clear unturned
● until now it's actually the paradox of the
phytoplankton because instead of seeing
competitive exclusion principle
triumphantly reducing the number of
species, we see many species of
phytoplankton that are coexisting with each
other so yeah so that's that no that's the
paradox of the plankton
Shipworms
● another example would be for the case of
your shipworms you know the the tamilok a
local term you know a local species
● your ship worms, the worms in the woods
of your well the old ship back then was
made of wood and this worm would
colonize this um these large wood beams
and what have they and what they find out
is that there is actually a very rich
community of shipworms
● now different species of shipworm could be
found across a single slab of the wood no
and what they have seen is that these
species have actually been coexisting with
each other they haven't out-competed no
they haven't fight what they did is they
 co-existed so there is this development of
niche
● certain organism certain species of
shipworm could only colonize the top
portion of the wood or the inner portion of
the wood and others are on the fringes
● there's actually the organization and
development of these different niches and
that would also apply to the different
number of species and population that we
see and the distribution of population that
we see today
● there's actually a development of different
niches that affects your distribution of life
D. Stochastic Events: Chance
Events
Stochastic - those are the chance events okay;
when we say stochastic in general it pertains to
randomness no random events
● chance events are or this randomly
determined process is what will make or
break the species as
● for us humans we are a terminal species no
homo sapiens in our group we are a
terminal representative and of course there
are other human species back then that
were walking alongside us and some of
them are far superior and far better both in
the body features they are larger and more
muscular and they have better genes for
survival; some of them are some of these
human species are far better than our
species but
why is that us, humans, homo sapiens that us are
the only extant an existing representative of the
human group and you why is that i mean how
come we're not the fittest of the bunch no but
we're the only extant species? scientists now
hypothesize that
1. we always leave/live in groups that's the
reason why we are the only existing human
because we always leave in groups, we are
protected by the numbers that's why we
can survive
2. that's just a chance event we're just lucky
we're lucky enough to be alive
● those chance event, those series of
unfortunate events, those series of events
have aligned perfectly for us human beings
to thrive
● those series of events favored our species
it's not because we're the fitness of the
bunch, we're not the fitness actually we're
so frail and weak it's because of those
events those chances that favored us the
stars indeed have aligned for our species
● it's not because we're the chosen one and
the most evolved and the brainiest, well
that did help but if you don't have your
stochastic events the chance no if you don't
have those chance that will be given to you
by some being or by some luck you won't
survive even if you're so fit if you don't have
the chance, you won't survive
● stochastic events those series of events,
those chance events that could favor the
organism is actually an important factor in
the distribution of life in the world
chance can really go a long way you know so give
yourself a chance and this might change things
because as they say everybody deserves a chance
and don't you agree
● even palaeontologic records reveal many of
the rise and declines of genera so say for
example there is the existence of a given
land bridge
● for example, in the Philippines, if the
existence of those land bridge coincided
with the maximum healthiness or genetic
vigor of your population of a given set of
well for the case of humans or certain
organisms this group would be far better
represented in the islands than if the bridge
were there, it is possible during a period
that your organism has few numbers it is on
a dwindling population so that's the thing
you need the stars to align for your species
● you need to have certain number in your
population to be aligned with the presence
of land bridges for your species to be
distributed
● because that's the thing about evolution
and the story of the distribution of life here
in the Philippines it's not about the survival
of the fetus but the survival of the fit
enough that's why there is variations
because the environment and nature but is
to put it simply, is a chaotic world, chaos
even mathematicians have acknowledged
that even a decimal point change in your
 initial condition could change and redirect
your outcome of the weather patterns no
that's why variations are important
● so that your species or your population is
flexible to the changes in the environment
● survival of the fit enough you need this
variation because as we have said it earlier
there is no such thing as adaptation only
● only abaptation
● with the b not add up with the d
Adaptation
● meaning when we say adaptation all these
genetic and phenotypic variants have
already been present in your population all
the genes all the cards are already there and
all nature's got to do is to choose from that
set of characters what she likes to persist in
the world in the environment in that area
● and of course, nature can be moody and
ever-changing at times that's why we need
to be flexible enough for us to survive so
yep that's your stochastic events
and i want you to take note of this because we all
need that chance to persist just give us the chance,
we'll prove it to you
Different effort of naturalists
- They somehow create or map or delineate
these regions of the world with certain
distinct species in them
A. Alfred Russell Wallace : zoological
boundaries and regions
- Alfred russell's version of these zoological
boundaries and regions were more or less
specific to animals because animals were
supposed to be specifically adapted to live
in certain zones or under certain physical
conditions
- his focus was on the zoological regions and
the most natural primary divisions of the
earth with regards to the forms of animals
animal life on earth
- geographers back then determined the or
delineated the regions of zoological regions
by means of your climate and certain
continents by delineating certain continents
with the use of your isothermal lines and
your parallels of your longitudes and the
tropic of cancer because different latitudes
would mean different temperature too that
is a primary factor for your distribution of
life as we have mentioned earlier
- the main principle of why Wallace has
come to the conclusion of doing the
zoological region was well alfred wallace
first of all have acknowledged the fact that
all of this zoological division that he created
was of course not close to a perfect division
because a zoological division of the earth in
the first place not delineating this division
would be nearly impossible because the
causes that have led to the present
distribution of animal and life are so varied
their actions and their actions the different
complexities have been so weird and
complex that anomalies and irregularities
are sure to exist between these different
regions
- which is why there are different
discrepancies in these boundaries that they
have delineated back then
- one you just need to have to assume that
the several regions that you have created
are not of equal rank and
- two that they are not equally applicable or
classes of animals
- but more or less all of these boundaries
coincided to the in general sense coincided
 to the distribution of animal species that
they have observed different families of
animals
- this map is the proto or the primary map or
boundaries that alfred Wallace has created
- there are at least six different zoological
regions there are six zoological regions
because wallace have based this on mr
scatlers rejoins not
1. Parliactic region- including Europe, the
temperate asia, north africa and atlas
mountains
2. ethiopian regions –which includes Africa
,south of the atlas ,and madagascar and the
Realms
muscarin islands with the inclusion of
southern arabia
3. indian region -including india the south of
himalaya to south china and borneo and
java
4. the Australian region- most distinct of them
all ; including certain parts of Celebes,
lombok strait eastward to Australia and
some of the pacific islands some of the
pacific islands right here like Fiji and all
those Micronesian islands in oceania yes
5. neoarctic region- including Greenland and
north america and north of Mexico but not
the not including the south of Mexico
because that would be included in your
neo-tropical region
6. Neotropical region -the south of mexico
including the most of the entire south
america the antillean region right here now
puerto rico and all the countries the
antillean regions
- so in total we have a six no before wallace
divided the world into six formal regions or
zoological regions the paleoartic the
Ethiopian the indian or much much
appropriate oriental the australian region
the neotropical the new arctic regions
- the australian fauna
the updated delineation of Roy E. Dickerson
- it's not a very updated description or
delineation
- he also used the different regions back then
but he recognized the presence of your
three realms of zoologic division
1. Neologic Realm
a. Neotropical regions
2. Arctogaeic Realm
a. Ethiopian region
b. Oriental region
c. Holoarctic region
d. Sonoran region
3. Notogaeic Realm
a. Polynesian region
b. Hawaiian region
c. Australian region
- that's the scheme of zoologic division by
roy dickerson in his book distribution of life
in the field
- For roy dickerson some of the boundaries of
the biologic division
- he based it more or less on the zoological or
the animal life that is present most of it are
decidedly indefinite just like what he agree
with with wallace
- all of these are only a generalized view but
it's not a totally well it is not far from
perfect and there are actually discrepancies
in the in your delineations because there
are certain transition zones actually and
- the Philippines are actually in the velocity in
the transition zone where we are clearly not
a distinct boundary between the Asiatic and
- we are a transition of both
- he pointed out that the various regions are
exceedingly distinct
Australian region- being the most distinct of all
the realms in all of the regions in the world it
contains the very distinct marsupial mammal
lineages and eucalyptus trees
- it is important to notice that this great
geographical separation does not
 necessarily indicate a great separation in
the biologic regions of the earth
- there are boundaries but it doesn't mean
that organism can't move from these
boundaries that's why there are transition
zones actually where different organisms
from different realms are made
- dynamic case that these different
biogeographical regions are still and up to
this point are equilibrium
- that's quite a good analogy of what's
happening in the academic discourses both
now and back then the good thing now is
that we are in the most acceptable or we
have high number no considerably high
before then compared then high number of
taxonomic researchers
- this is a classic map back then which always
uses a north polar projection and it has a
continuity
- it can show continuity of your land masses
okay so we go now to the recent
biogeographic region
biogeographic regions - when we say
biogeographic regions we pertain to the certain area
of both animal and plants and their distribution now
so it's an area where your animal and plant
distribution has a certain degree of shared
similarities and shared characteristics all throughout
that area these geographic regions of similar
environmental conditions that are capable of
harboring the same type of biota
- this situation effectively separates the
biosphere; the earth into biomes or the
ecological communities that have the same
climatic conditions and geological features
that support species of similar life
(strategies and adaptations)
Biome-when we say biome, it is the fundamental
unit of which a larger biogeographic region i.e the
floral kingdoms and fungal realms is consistent for
example the tropical forest is one type of a
terrestrial biome; it is located in various points
around the planet where climatic and geology
conditions produce similar environments
- however, the individual species will not be
the same from one tropical forest to
another instead each forest will support
organisms that are ecologically more or less
ecologically equivalent
- the important thing here is how in the
mapping of your geographic regions by
geographic regions is how the unique
distribution of these animal implants in
these various biomes are purely affected by
the present climatic factors
- the isothermic maps delated to
dezonalization and also the geologic events
which includes some concepts from lecture
two like continental derived and past
climatic conditions
- this approach in the mapping of your
biogeographic region is actually what we
call the historical biogeography
Historical Biogeography – which pertains to
the study of the distribution of flora and fauna
throughout the world so for the distribution
boundaries of flora and fauna
- we have for the case of your flora we have
the kingdoms: boreal, paleotropical,
neotropical south Africa, australian, and
antarctic
- for the case of your animals your fauna we
have the realms: the whole arctic
paleotropical, notogenean, neogenean ,and
the antarctic realm
- again sometimes these biogeographical
regions that were mentioned earlier are
always somehow interchangeably related to
biome the major life zones that there is
these different biomes are named for their
dominant type of vegetation (the tropical
rainforest, the tyga, the tundra)
- for the mapping of this biome, you always
have to consider different processes
 different factors that make such distribution
possible of today
- different factors that affect for example
your dispersals of your organism and
vicariance or separation through islands and
geographical barriers like the presence of
your seas or the presence of your land mass
- the concept of endemism followed by the
components of species diversity the species
richness the relative abundance
- the species adaptation to ecological habitats
and your geological changes that affects
biotic distribution
- all of those factors are used in the mapping
of the distribution of your flora and fauna in
the world
why are we using this different biographical
classification
- first of all when we do delineate certain
areas of the world it is more or less a means
to understand the causative factors involved
in evolution whether they be the
vicissitudes of geologic events or the
dynamics of biological adaptation
- in the sense a classification is not right and
wrong as long as it is useful since we are
utilitarian
- this effort of us until today before and now
this effort of sorting animals and plants into
major biogeographic regions is a useful
hypothesis generating activity because
when two taxa of organisms show similar
variation in distribution it would mean that
they have been subjected to the same kind
of evolutionary processes such as different
ecological constraints that favor certain
adaptation or random geographical changes
- this would be for the case of your marsupial
and placentals
- this is always a case of your convergent
evolution
- for example your we have your squirrel, a
eutherian mammal ,your flying squirrel that
is native to parts of north america and
british columbia and we have your sugar
glider native to australia if you look at them
they look the same they're weirdly the
same but they are located on different parts
of the globe and they are not even a close
relative of each other
- the first one the flying squirrel in America
north america is a eutherian mammal, a
placental mammal and your flying or your
sugar glider on australia is a marsupial
- but if you look at them they look the same
because they're a product of convergent
evolution because there is this certain kinds
of evolutionary pressures same processes
same ecological constraint that made them
adapt or look that way so the thing with
convergent evolution - basically is that animals
that are living in the same ecosystem same biome
would have similar lifestyles similar food source
similar nocturnal lifestyle many similar
characteristics of their environment that's why they
would end up having the same similar physical traits
that's the thing about your convergent evolution
- that's why most of this placentals and
marsupial mammals look exactly the same
or more or less the same because of their
habit in their regions but they are different
from each other
- this is a prime example of convergent
evolution
INSERT INFOS FROM BRITANNICA
Distribution of Life: The Different
Biogeographic Regions of the Earth Bear in
mind that although we scientists are very fond
of clear and definite delineations in the real
world these boundaries and species exist in a
spectrum with a certain level of continuity and
discontinuity. Remember the difference
between: Malesia
Melanesia
Micronesia
Macaronesia
*Note: Beringia is defined today as the land
and maritime area bounded on the west by
the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the
Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north the
Chukchi Sea, and on the south by the tip of the
Kamchatka Peninsula. *Plus remember that
earth's glacial cycles could form and submerge
certain land bridges that existed (tune in for
future lectures on Glaciation)
------------ end of part 2 -----------
*part 3 on other material