00066 - Biogeography

Learning outcomes

The goal of course is to provide to the student an advanced knowledge on biodiversity and spatial distribution of organisms, at different taxonomic levels. The student will acquire knowledge about the evolutionary, paleogeographic, paleoclimatic and ecological factors that have shaped the differential distribution of organisms on Earth. In addition, the student will acquire basic knowledge on the methods adopted for the investigation of present and past biogeography, as well as the capacity to interpret the factors driving the distribution and diversity of organisms under a provisional perspective.

Course contents

General Introduction
Basic concepts of Biogeography
Distribution of the diversity of life on Earth
- Distribution of taxonomic diversity
- Distribution of ecological diversity
Biogeographical processes and patterns
- Earth processes and historical biogeography
- Evolutionary patterns
- Dispersal, Evolution and extinctions
- Endemism of species and higher taxa
Island Biogeography
- Species-Area Relationships
- The equilibrium theory
Macroecological patterns
- Patterns of rarity and commonness
- Range-size and body-size distribution
- Species pool theory
Biodiversity statistics
- Big data in biogeography
- Diversity measurements
-Diversity across time and spatial scales
- Basic of multivariate statistics
Conservation
-Ecosystem functioning
-Conservation planning

Readings/Bibliography

Lomolino M.V., Riddle B.R., Whittaker R.J., 2017. Biogeography: Biological Diversity Across Space and Time. Sinauer Associates

Hugget R., 2004. Fundamentals of Biogeography. Taylor & Francis.

Various papers provided by the teacher.

Teaching methods

- 16 class lecture of 2 hours each
- 4 flipped classroms / journal clubs
- 3 practical lectures with example of statistical analysis of data
- 1 summary lecture

Assessment methods

Written text at the first session, with open questions and question with multiple possible answers;
Interview at the subsequent exam sessions.

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Chiarucci