Biotic Evolution and Environmental Change in Southeast Asia

The flora and fauna of Southeast Asia are exceptionally diverse. The region includes several terrestrial biodiversity hotspots and is the principal global hotspot for marine diversity, but it also faces the most intense challenges of the current global biodiversity crisis. Providing reviews, syntheses and results of the latest research into Southeast Asian earth and organismal history, this book investigates the history, present and future of the fauna and flora of this bio- and geodiverse region. Leading authorities in the field explore key topics including palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, biogeography, population genetics and conservation biology, illustrating research approaches and themes with spatially, taxonomically and methodologically focused case studies. The volume also presents methodological advances in population genetics and historical biogeography. Exploring the fascinating environmental and biotic histories of Southeast Asia, this is an ideal resource for graduate students and researchers as well as environmental NGOs.

David Gower is a researcher in the Department of Zoology at the Natural History Museum, London. An evolutionary and organismal herpetologist, his studies focus on caecilians, snakes and Triassic diapsid reptiles.

Kenneth Johnson is a researcher in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, London, studying the long-term biological and environmental history of coral reef ecosystems in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean.

James Richardson is a researcher at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and University of the Andes in Bogotá. He studies the biogeographic history of tropical flowering plants.

Brian Rosen is a researcher in the Department of Zoology at the Natural History Museum, London, specialising in ecology, diversity and biogeography of reefs, and coral growth, form and taxonomy.

Lukas Rüber is at the Department of Zoology at the Natural History Museum, London. He is an evolutionary biologist studying speciation, adaptive radiation, phylogeography, biogeography and systematics, especially of fishes.