Lecture 2: GEO 311 Biogeography (Biological Geography)

Introduction: Definitions of major concepts

This course is intended to make students appreciate the diversity of taxa (species) and
ecosystems on land and in the seas. Understand the factors that influence the distribution of
species on the earth planet. Explore the role of humans versus natural factors. To start, let us
understand what is “biology or biodiversity or biological diversity’ then the geographical world
or the earth planet they dwell on.
What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity or biological diversity is the degree of variation of life in an area. This can refer to
genetic variation, species variation, or ecosystem variation within an area, biome, or planet.
According to “Convention on Biological Diversity 1992” Biological diversity means the
variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and
other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes
diversity within species (intra), between species (inter) and of ecosystems.
Biodiversity takes into account the diversity of species, their genes, their populations, and their
communities.
History
In the context of conservation science the term ‘biodiversity, a contraction of ‘biological
diversity, is a relatively young terminology. ‘Biological diversity in its current sense began to be
used in the early 1980s, in response to implications of unrestricted population and economic
growth on the environment. Use of the term has ranged from a focus on species richness (number
of different species in a location/sample) to the greater emphasis on ecological and genetic
diversity. The specific origin of the word ‘biodiversity is often attributed to W.G. Rosen in 1985
during planning for the ‘National Forum on Biodiversity which took place in America later that
year. The proceedings of the forum were published by E. O. Wilson in 1988 in a book entitled
‘Biodiversity, which is likely to have initiated the widespread use of the word (Hamilton AJ
2005).
Initially, the term biodiversity was used more in political forums than scientific ones, progressing
over time to become a term used to symbolize the concept of the “richness of life on earth”.
Importantly biodiversity does not exclusively refer to species richness. It also encompasses
diversity at a wider scale meaning that differences in the genetic makeup of populations are
important. Endemism has a key role to play in this context because endemic species are restricted
to small areas and provide pockets of particularly high genetic diversity.
The concept of biodiversity continues to evolve and more recently it has been included in the
idea of ecosystem services in that it is a form of ‘natural capital’ and thus underpins the

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functioning of ecosystems. Biodiversity itself is not generally considered an ecosystem service
but rather supports environmental functions.
Levels of biodiversity
Traditionally biodiversity has been defined using the following three terms:
Species diversity is the effective number of different species that are represented in a
collection of individuals. Species diversity consists of two components: species richness
and species evenness. Species richness is a simple count of species, whereas species
evenness quantifies how equal the abundances of the species are.
Ecosystem diversity refers to the diversity of a place at the level of ecosystems. The
term differs from biodiversity, which refers to variation in species rather than ecosystems.
Ecosystem diversity can also refer to the variety of ecosystems present in a biosphere, the
variety of species and ecological processes that occur in different physical settings.
Note: community diversity, habitat diversity, and landscape diversity are all ways to view
biodiversity at the ecosystem level.
Genetic diversity refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic
makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the
tendency of genetic characteristics to vary. Genetic diversity serves as a way for
populations to adapt to changing environments. With more variation, it is more likely that
some individuals in a population will possess variations of alleles that are suited for the
environment. Those individuals are more likely to survive to produce offspring bearing
that allele. The population will continue for more generations because of the success of
these individuals.
Molecular diversity: recently Campbell (2003) defined the fourth level …… as the
richness of molecules found in life.
Biodiversity distribution
Biodiversity is not evenly distributed on earth, rather it varies greatly across the globe as well as
within regions. Among other factors that influence the diversity of all living things (biota) are (a)
abiotic (physical) factors e.g., temperature, precipitation, altitude, soils, geography and (b)
biotic factors e.g., predation, parasitism and competition. The study of the spatial distribution of
organisms, species, and ecosystems, is the science of biogeography.
Diversity consistently measures higher in the tropics and other localized regions such as the Cape
Floristic Region and lower in polar regions. Generally, there is an increase in biodiversity from
the poles to the tropics. Thus localities at lower latitudes have more species than localities at
higher latitudes. This is often referred to as the latitudinal gradient in species diversity. Several
ecological mechanisms may contribute to the gradient, but the ultimate factor behind many of
them is the greater mean temperature at the equator compared to that of the poles. Rain forests
and coral reefs are some of the ecosystems that are rich in species.
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Terrestrial biodiversity is up to 25 times greater than ocean biodiversity. Although a recently
discovered method of the study put the total number of species on Earth at 8.7 million of which
2.2 million were estimated to live in the ocean, however, this estimate seems to under-represent
the diversity of microorganisms (Mora et al 2011). Even though terrestrial biodiversity declines
from the equator to the poles, some studies claim that this characteristic is unverified in aquatic
ecosystems, especially in marine ecosystems. Also, the latitudinal distribution of parasites does
not follow this rule.

Table 1.1 Discovered and predicted total number of species on land and in the oceans

The above estimates are strongest for eukaryotic organisms (higher organisms) and likely
represent the lower bound of prokaryote diversity.
Specifically, these estimates include:
 220,000 vascular plants, estimated using the species-area relation method,
 0.7-1 million marine species,
 10–30 million insects; (of some 0.9 million we know today),
 5–10 million bacteria,
 1.5-3 million fungi, estimates based on data from the tropics, long-term non-tropical sites,
and molecular studies that have revealed cryptic speciation. Some 0.075 million species
of fungi had been documented by 2001.
 1 million mites.
 The number of microbial species is not reliably known, but the Global Ocean Sampling
Expedition dramatically increased the estimates of genetic diversity by identifying an

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 enormous number of new genes from near-surface plankton samples at various marine
locations, initially over the 2004-2006 period. The findings may eventually cause a
significant change in the way science defines species and other taxonomic categories.
What is a species?
Species consists of populations of organisms that can reproduce with one another and that are
reproductively isolated from other such populations. And this is what is referred to as Biological
Species Concept.
Other species concepts:
 Phylogenetic Species Concept (PSC)
 Phenetic
 Physiological
 Biogeographical
 Morphology
Quotation of species problem …..
“... I was much struck how entirely vague and arbitrary is the distinction between species and
varieties" Darwin 1859 (p. 48)”
“….The species problem is the long-standing failure of biologists to agree on how we should
identify species and how we should define the word 'species' (Hey 2001)”

References
Darwin, C. (1859). On the origin of species by means of natural selection. London: Murray.
Campbell AK (2003). Save those molecules! Molecular diversity and life. Journal of Applied
Ecology 40:193-203.
Hamilton AJ (2005) Species diversity or biodiversity? Journal of environmental management
75:89–92
Hey, J. (July 2001). "The mind of the species problem". Trends in Ecology and Evolution 16 (7):
326–329.
Mora C, Tittensor DP, Adl S, Simpson AGB, Worm B (2011) How Many Species Are There on
Earth and in the Ocean? PLoS Biol 9(8): e1001127. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127