BIOGEOGRAPHIC

PROCESSES
 BIOGEOGRAPHY
IS THE STUDY OF THE DISTRIBUTION
OF ORGANISMS AT VARYING SPATIAL
AND TEMPORAL SCALES, AS WELL AS
THE PROCESSES THAT PRODUCE
THESE DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS.
BIOGEOGRAPHIC
PROCESSES
THE ENVIRONMENT SHAPES
ORGANISMS

• Organisms inhabit nearly every environment on Earth, from

hot vents deep in the ocean floor to the icy reaches of the
Arctic. Each environment offers both resources and
constraints that shape the appearance of the species that
inhabit it, and the strategies these species use to survive and
reproduce.

• Some of the broadest patterns of environmental difference

arise from the way our planet orbits the Sun and the
resulting global distribution of sunlight.
HOW DO ORGANISMS CHANGE
AND EVOLVE?
• Evolution reflects the adaptations of organisms to
their changing environments and can result in
altered genes, novel traits, and new species.
Evolutionary processes depend on both changes
in genetic variability and changes in allele
frequencies over time.
DARWINISM

Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution

developed by the English naturalist Charles
Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all
species of organisms arise and develop through
the natural selection of small, inherited variations
that increase the individual's ability to compete,
survive, and reproduce.
ADAPTATION

“Adaptation is the physical or behavioral

characteristic of an organism that helps an
organism to survive better in the surrounding
environment.” Living things are adapted to the
habitat they live in. This is because they have
special features that help them to survive.
SPECIATION

Speciation is the evolutionary process by

which populations evolve to become
distinct species. The biologist Orator F.
Cook coined the term in 1906 for
cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as
opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution
within lineages.
EXTINCTION

Extinction is the termination of a kind of

organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually
a species. The moment of extinction is
generally considered to be the death of the
last individual of the species, although the
capacity to breed and recover may have been
lost before this point.
CONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY

Continental drift was a theory that explained

how continents shift position on Earth's surface.
Set forth in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, a
geophysicist and meteorologist, continental drift
also explained why look-alike animal and plant
fossils, and similar rock formations, are found on
different continents.
 INVASION

Corals are prone to invade the territory of neighboring colonies.

Corals send out long stinging tentacles to search for and destroy
the invader. Defensive mechanisms that corals use to ward off
such attacks and the onslaughts of other organisms include
armor, camouflaged, and toxic and unpalatable substances
incorporated in their body tissues.
SUCCESSION

• When communities of plants and animals are replaced over time by a series of different
and usually more complex communities, it is called ecological succession.
• Coral reefs are built by millions of tiny animals called polyps, which form enormous
colonies.
RESILIENCE

Many symbiotic relationships exist between species which add to the resilience of reefs.
• Corals and peanut worm: keeps the coral upright and stops it from being smothered by
sediment.
• Shrimp can bore into the feet of Crown of Thorns starfish saving coral.
• Sponges act as "vacuum cleaners" filtering out bacteria, detritus and coral mucus.
 ECOLOGICAL INTERACTION

• individual organisms live together in an ecosystem and depend on one

another.
• Some organisms can make their own food, and other organisms have to get
their food by eating other organisms.
• An organism that must obtain their nutrients by eating (consuming) other
organisms is called a consumer, or a heterotroph. Some consumers
are predators; they hunt, catch, kill, and eat other animals, the prey.
The prey animal tries to avoid being eaten by hiding, fleeing, or defending
itself using various adaptations and strategies.
• Organisms that make their own food by using sunlight or chemical energy to
convert simple inorganic molecules into complex, energy-rich organic
molecules like glucose are called producers or autotrophs.
 SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS

• Organisms often provide resources or services to each other; the interaction is

mutually beneficial. These “win-win” symbiotic interactions are known as
mutualism (+ +). For example, ants living in a tree may protect the tree from an
organism that would like to make the tree its next meal, and at the same time the
tree provides a safe home for the ants.
• Symbiotic relationships are not always positive for both participants. Sometimes
there are definite losers. In parasitism (+ -), for example, the parasite benefits and
the host is harmed, such as when a tick sucks blood out of a dog.
• Commensalism (+ 0), are beneficial for one organism, but do not affect the other
in a positive or a negative way. The interaction is seemingly neutral for one of the
organisms. For example, a barnacle attached to a whale is able to travel thousands of
miles collecting and filtering food from the moving water. The whale doesn’t seem to
be affected by the little hitchhikers.
 LIMITING FACTORS

• A limiting factor is anything that constrains a population's size and slows

or stops it from growing. Limiting factors are usually expressed as a lack
of a particular resource.
Some examples of limiting factors are:
• biotic, like food, mates, and competition with other organisms for
resources., predators
• physical, like temperature, rainfall