Biogeography

Biogeography, first published in 1983, is one of the most comprehensive text and general reference books in the field. The Fourth Edition builds on the strengths of previous editions, combining evolutionary and ecological perspectives to show how Earth history, contemporary environments, and evolutionary and ecological processes have shaped species distributions and nearly all patterns of biodiversity. It is an empirically and conceptually rich text that illustrates general patterns and processes using examples from a diversity of plants and animals across the Earth s aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Biogeography, Fourth Edition is written as a primary text for undergraduate and graduate courses, and is also an invaluable reference for biogeographers, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and conservation biologists. Starting from simple facts and principles and assuming only a rudimentary knowledge of biology, geography, and Earth history, the text explains the relationships between geographic variation in biodiversity and the geological, ecological, and evolutionary processes that have produced them. Written in an engaging style, Biogeography emphasizes the interplay between unifying concepts and presents evidence that supports or challenges these concepts. The use of color illustrations (new to this edition), evaluated and optimized for colorblind readers as well, has transformed our abilities to illustrate key concepts and empirical patterns in the geography of nature. The addition of the distinguished plant ecologist and biogeographer Robert J. Whittaker to our team of authors has substantially enhanced the balance and depth of coverage of classical foundations, empirical case studies, and frontiers of biogeography.

MARK V. LOMOLINO is a Professor in the Department of Environmental and Forest Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, USA. His research and teaching focus on biogeography, community ecology, and conservation of biological diversity. He is a cofounder and past President of the International Biogeography Society. Dr. Lomolino received the American Society of Mammalogists Award for his dissertation studies on the ecology, evolution, and biogeography of insular mammals. He is a co-editor of two books, Foundations of Biogeography (University of Chicago Press) and Frontiers of Biogeography: New Directions in the Geography of Nature. BRETT R. RIDDLE is a Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada, USA. His research focuses primarily on the history of biodiversity in western North America, with ongoing projects including: historical assembly of the warm desert biotas; phylogeography of Great Basin cold desert and montane island biotas; and molecular systematics and biogeography of a diverse cadre of North American rodent groups. He is a co-founder and past President of the International Biogeography Society, and an Editor of the Journal of Biogeography and Associate Editor of Systematic Biology. ROBERT J. WHITTAKER is Professor of Biogeography in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, UK, and is an Honorary Professor in Macroecology and Climate, in the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a co-founder and current President of the International Biogeography Society, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biogeography. He is co-author of Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation, published by Oxford University Press, and has research interests spanning island biogeography, diversity theory, and conservation biogeography. JAMES H. BROWN is Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico, USA. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and past President of the International Biogeography Society, the American Society of Mammalogists, the American Society of Naturalists, and the Ecological Society of America. His broad research interests include biological scaling, metabolic and community ecology, and biogeography. He has trained several Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scientists who are making major contributions to biogeography and ecology.