Science topics: GeoscienceBiogeography
Science topic

Biogeography - Science topic

Explore the latest questions and answers in Biogeography, and find Biogeography experts.
Questions related to Biogeography
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
6 answers
Are you interested in joining our Juglandaceae-network?
We are working on global biogeography and conservation of the relict tree family Juglandaceae. However, the distribution and status knowledge of many species of South-Eastern Asia are not well known.
We are searching therefore for local experts of Engelhardia apoensis. According to our knowledge, the species is present in continental Malaysia, Borneo, Brunei, Philippines. Please see the attached schematic map with known distribution (administrative units & countries).
Any information, maps, publications, reports, personal observations, etc. from your region are interesting for us.
Relevant answer
Answer
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
1 answer
I created a file with my outgroup and ingroup species using Beauti, ran it in BEAST, viewed it in Tracer, and then used TreeAnnotator to create a file that I imported into RASP.
Could someone please help me review these steps and results?
Thank you!
Relevant answer
Answer
Silvia Pérez As someone who dabbles in general biogeography I cannot comment on the phylogenetic tree, but I looked up Pennington et al 2021 for the distribution of the genus as then known. Looks quite interesting, and one species - Ruagea glabra - has an almost identical range to the ghost moth species Druceiella metellus. It will be interesting to know to what extent your distributional data has changed from 2021. Hope you can avoid the center of origin-chance dispersal nonsense. Pennington et al were a bit unsettled as to the sister genus - either S AM Guarea or Catratea - latter apparently sister to the S Pacific Dysoxylum. Would be interested to see a better image of your phylogeny along with the distributional maps of each species if you want any further feedback. Can email me at calabar.john@gmail.com
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
I submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Biogeography. It has been 7 months and it still under review. I am just wondering if anyone else here has had a similar experience and how long it was before it was accepted. TIA.
Relevant answer
Answer
Michael Dawson, editor in chief of the Journal of Biogeography, published a blog post announcing his resignation on June 21:
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
6 answers
Physical geography is includes the study of the earth spheres. Geographers usually working on geomorphology, climatology and biogeography. Why they don't work mostly in oceanography ?
Discussion.
Relevant answer
Answer
Physical geographers indeed study various Earth spheres, focusing on geomorphology, climatology, and biogeography. While their expertise spans multiple disciplines, they generally don't work predominantly in oceanography due to specialization, academic training, research funding and opportunities, distinct research tools, and the natural emphasis on terrestrial processes. Nevertheless, physical geographers often collaborate with oceanographers and other scientists on interdisciplinary projects that explore the interconnectedness of land and sea.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
Just about everyone these days uses fossils to calibrate molecular divergence. Fossils only provide minimum ages, but these are magically transmogrified into actual or maximal dates that are supposed to falsify earlier origins supported by tectonic methods. Ancestral area analysis can generate chance dispersal for patterns that could just as well be the result of vicariance. Ancestral area analysis uses areas that have no emperical existence. Its all a bit like following Alice down the rabbit hole. Numbers or not, nonsense is still nonsense.
Relevant answer
Answer
Andrew Paul McKenzie Pegman Exactly! At least you are not a practitioner of the methods. But there are plenty who are (and tons of funding) and I was interested to see if anyone out there might try to defend what I view as nonsense (because of the issues outlined). Its indefensibility may be why some prominent NZ practitioners chose to call of suppression of competing research programs rather than provide effective defense of their own.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
7 answers
According to distribution maps (IUCN, http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/183882/0) this species has been restrictively allocated to specific sites in the eastern Pacific including the Gulf of California (Mexico), Cocos Island National Park (Costa Rica), Galapagos (Ecuador) and Lobos de Afuera Island (Peru). I was wondering if there is any other unofficial/unpublished report for H. fossatus in the eastern Pacific
Relevant answer
Answer
FYI, that photo on youir question is not Herpetoichthys, but is Myrichthys
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
10 answers
Biogeography theory predicts that species will either migrate, adapt, or go extint under environmental change. Due to limited mobility in plants, their options are limited to adaptation, including phenological changes, which has been observed for many plants. So, do we have adequate data to be able to identify traits that confer plants the ability to shift their regeneration or flowering phenologies due to climate change? Could you please mention those traits and provide links to papers with empirical evidence. Thank you!
Relevant answer
I never said seed dispersal is a response to climate possible change :)
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
10 answers
That's probably a beginner question, but, after I run the BBM analysis and go to the graphic tree view how interpretation I give to the symbols in event matrix on Information tab? An example:
NODE93:
EVENT MATRIX:
Dispersal:2
Vicariance:1
Extinction:0
Event Route:
->^C->C^C->C|C
PROBABILITY:
0.0000
 What's mean the numbers in Dispersal, Vicariance and Extinction? And the simbols in event route between the area C, they have the same significance which have in mathemarical equations?
Relevant answer
Answer
Shayan Jamshed This question kept coming up while I myself was trying to figure out the answers, so I thought I'd venture an interpretation. It is a little frustrating that there is no clear documentation on these, but carefully examining my own results (with the help of plenty of coffee) has helped tremendously.
First, in the RASP manual (p25) it states that:
^: local speciation, which means two or more child node/species arise in the same area, in other words, it is a "small scale dispersal".
|: vicariance.
->: from parent node to descendant nodes.
I think these are slightly confusing and not well defined as ill explain below, but they helped me figure out a possible interpretation.
If we take the results, it makes the most sense to me if we add a few parentheses to better segment the interpretations
(A)->[(A^A)->(ABC^A)]->(ABC|A)
From here, I want to note that I am interpreting the arrows (->) to not strictly mean from parent node to descendant node, but rather, as events.
Within the square brackets are events that are occurring between the ancestral node and the child node.
We start with the ancestral (A), then we have a divergence indicated in the next bit as (A^A). From here, I assume that the 2 taxa are splitting but not fully new taxa (think incipient species or diverging populations) and are both found in state A. I will better indicate them as A1 and A2 for this explanation but note that we assume they are not 2 distinct taxa while in the square brackets and should be considered one taxon with an expanding range.
Next, we see that there are 2 dispersal events for A1 in (A1BC^A2). In short, the A taxa dispersed once into B and also dispersed into C. We would assume at the same time.
Finally, we see the child nodes indicated by (A1BC|A2). I want to note, that I do not believe | in this final node necessarily means vicariance and is more indicating a split between these 2 taxa. In my own results, if vicariance is detected | does indicate the split, but it does not mean that for all scenarios. This is a bit confusing, and im happy to be proven wrong if I misunderstood this.
Here are a few other abbreviated interpretations I've made which include the DEC results for number of extinction, dispersal, and vicariance events. Again, I would'nt say these are 100% accurate as I am guessing and piecing the interpretation together. I have added the square brackets, parentheses, and numbers to better illustrate the events.
1.
EVENT MATRIX:
Dispersal:0
Vicariance:0
Extinction:0
Event Route:
M->M^M->M|M
Interpretation: Effectively nothing has happened. The taxa diverged sympatrically. This is a very common event, and is why I believe the pipe does not always mean vicariance.
2.
EVENT MATRIX
Dispersal: 2
Vicariance: 1
Extinction: 0
Event Route:
J->[JNO]->NO|J
Interpretation: 2 dispersals from J into N and into O. Then a vicarance event indicated by between NO|J. This is an example where vicariance is indeed indicated by a |
3.
EVENT MATRIX:
Dispersal:3
Vicariance:0
Extinction:0
Event Route:
J->[(J1^J2)->(IJ1KO^J2)]->IJ1|J2KO
Interpretation: J exhibited small-scale dispersal (^) as then dispersed 3 times into the states I, K, and O. The final split IJ | JKO shows the final splits. Again, this is why I was not assuming J1 and J2 are distinct taxa until the final state. If they were, there would have to be some vicariance and/or extinction events to explain the pattern. Again, the pipe does not mean vicariance here, just the split.
I hope this helps. Again, these are my interpretations, but they may be incorrect/misguided so any corrections are more than welcome.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
13 answers
Please, help me to figure out with the next situation: there are two alien species in the flora of a country, they are parental ones for a hybrid which was described and is known only from a few locations within this country. Could I say that this hybrid is native to this country?
Relevant answer
Answer
Hybrid of two non-native species, must be considered non-native. My reason is simple, that the parents were not supposed to be found in the non-native area, then how can you agree their offsprings to be native. If you say that the hybrid is native, then the seeds of normal non-native species occurring in non-native place should be considered native too, which is wrong.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
13 answers
    My research topic is to explore the biogeograpgic patterns of species richness of insects. I have the regional richness data of all insects and different orders from many locations. It's well known that insects include c. 30 orders with different numbers of species and phylogenies. I want to group different insect orders into several groups, and make a clear description of their diversity patterns. The problem is in grouping different insect orders into several groups.
    I'm also looking for someone interested in this project. Please contact me if you want to join me. 
Relevant answer
Answer
By taxonomic characters for example the order of Lepidoptera includes butterflies
The diptera order include flies
The hymenoptera order includes bees, wasps, hornets and ants
Coleoptera includes bettles
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
My nuclear and cpDNA are incongruent, and We keep them separate. I would like to do biogeography analyses. Which kid of trees, nuclear or cpDNA, are prefered for this analysis and why?
Relevant answer
Answer
Hello Maryam,
in phylogenetic analyses, both nuclear and cpDNA markers can be used and the results compared. Chloroplast markers generally have less polymorphism and are more suitable for comparing populations or species to each other, whereas nuclear markers are more variable and easier to capture variation within populations. As for chloroplasts, they are inherited in a single lineage (there is no recombination as with nuclear DNA), so it genetic information is inherited in a nearly constant way from one generation to the next, which may make it easier to know exactly how the different lineages separated.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
6 answers
Hello! I've recently come across the need to reproject some environmental raster layers from the mercator projection into an area-conserving projection: cylindrical equal area.
Reprojecting in R using the projectRaster function, then writing the rasters as tif files, I'm getting files that are significantly large so that I quickly run off of usable computer space in my analysis (I have approximately 50 environmental rasters).
My question is: is there a way to avoid this significant file size increase? It could be either through saving the reprojected raster in another format that is more lightweight; another equal area projection that through reprojection from mercator leads to lesser distortion/size increase;
Thank you in advance for any input!
Relevant answer
Answer
Francisco O. Borges If your originals are already classified, or remote sensing images not RGB photos, the interpolation technique matters - should be 'nearest neighbor', or you will get values that are essentially noise. For instance https://www.mrlc.gov/data/legends/national-land-cover-database-class-legend-and-description , values of 31 Barren Land (Rock/Sand/Clay) and 41 Deciduous Forest would be interpolated to some nonsense value of between 31 and 45. Similar effects occur for signatures can occur if you are relying on the relative values between bands for NDVI, for instance.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
22 answers
I am researching the geographical distribution of the most common cosmopolitan springtail species. Can you recommend sources related to collembola phylogeography?. It would be nice if we collected a significant number of references on this issue.
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Nikola Z. Grujic . See the following useful link:
Sun, X., Zhang, F., Ding, Y. et al. Delimiting species of Protaphorura (Collembola: Onychiuridae): integrative evidence based on morphology, DNA sequences and geography. Sci Rep 7, 8261 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08381-4
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
4 answers
I am looking for information on current records of free-ranging European wild boar (Sus scrofa) in Mexico. If you have information help me. Thank you!
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi,guys, did anyone provide an answer to the question about distribution of wild pigs in Mexico? I'd be very grateful to hear the answer. Adrian.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
Hello. My name is Malte. In my master thesis I study assemblages of Meso and Makrofauna associated with arboreal soil in tree-cavities, following an approach of island biogeography. In my study design the two predictors "size of tree cavity (amount of arboreal soil)" and "isolation (distance between tree cavity and terrestrial ground)" are included. Taking samples of twelve trees - sampling 1 tree cavity per each tree, 2 surveys with one year inbetween were conducted, including the following steps: Removal of arboreal soil of tree-cavities, Extraction of Fauna, Sterilization and restoration of arboreal soil into tree-cavities. I determined taxonomic groups to order level and counted the individuals. Having my dataset complete, the first thing I want to look at, analyzing my data, is the occurence probability of the insular groups (those that are bound to the arboreal soil in tree-cavities, e.g. Crassiclitellata) as a function of the predictors described above. I want to perform a zero-inflated regression model as it can consider the two distinct stochastic processes - 1. Colonization and 2. Abundace > 0 (Kéry and Royle 2015).
Relevant answer
Answer
Hello, I see that the answer the hypothesis you want to answer is if there are differences in the abundance of your samples according to the different types of trees and cavities, if so, you could test Poison distributions, Sorensen's ordering maps, or multivariate hypothesis tests like PERMANOVA or MANOVA.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
I'm looking at using genomic data to do some biogeographic research. Are there any databases that could be used in geospatial analysis?
Relevant answer
Answer
Update: this database is insane! http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
Burlap traps are a way to mitigate the invasive Lymantria dispar dispar (tussock/gypsy moth) caterpillars, which defoliate mainly hardwood deciduous trees. Burlap is wrapped around trees and tied with twine, then folded to create a flap and ideal conditions where the caterpillars migrate into. The caterpillars are then disposed of in soapy water when the traps are checked.
If I want to study spatial ecology of these caterpillars, using quantitative analysis from each trap at a small lake surrounded by forest, how should I prioritize trap set-up (location, amount)?
Should the traps be completely randomized?
My study area is at maximum 2 square kilometres with a small Lake taking up about 0.25 of those square km.
Ideally I want to minimize confounding variables such as tree species the traps are placed on.
The goal of this project is to determine spatial distribution of the caterpillars and to mitigate them with weekly checks.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Relevant answer
Answer
As far as the traps concern I recommend using completely randomized block design in setting your traps.
As for surveying the Lymantria dispar, my suggestion is to go for line transects.
As for burlap issue, I would suggest to go for some baits in parallel.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
4 answers
I evaluated the contribution of deterministic factors on my bacterial communities, however, I also would like to quantify or estimate the effect of potential stochastic processes that might explain the remaining variation unexplained under environmental conditions.
Relevant answer
Answer
Publication by Sloan et al, 2006 “Quantifying the roles of immigration and chance in shaping prokaryote community structure”
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
10 answers
From your viewpoint, what are the future main challenges in studying Biomes, Biogeography, Terrestrial & Aquatic Ecosystems of the World?
Best regards,
Saeed
Relevant answer
Answer
Discussion about biodiversity is specifically important especially under the uprising pressure of climate change nowadays, which is profoundly becoming to be shown as natural disturbance in some specific areas.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
11 answers
Earth have diverse group of insects, if a species of insect got extinct, how we can assess and identify them? What are the criteria’s to follow?
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Kariyanna,
I believe that several other replies here have added useful information for attempting to define this. Though I had some entomology courses and instruct a bit of this in my zoology teachings, I work largely with mammals. Extinction can be difficult, if not impossible, to verify for many species, so a consensus, such as the IUCN description is a useful working application.
In graduate school, a fellow researcher worked on a possible population census of wolverines in the state of Oregon. Though it was assumed that wolverines exist in Oregon, none were definitively sighted for several years. The research was based upon trace evidence - burrows, hair, tracks, and alleged sightings or predation of this species.
I myself assisted a colleague on trace evidence and reports of the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) in Tasmania. Largely considered to be extinct, but with continued reports, some from reputable sources. Is it extinct? Most mammalogists would say yes, but I am still uncertain with some of the reports and a large amount of suitable habitat that is difficult to access. On the other hand, species such as the Great auk, the passenger pigeon, and Steller's sea cow have no doubt that they are extinct and no sightings have been reported for a century or more.
Here is one reference for insect sampling and potential declines: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7069279/
Regards,
Jeb Bevers
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
Herewith I am sharing Call for papers for the 4th volume of the series “Biodiversity, biogeography and nature conservation in Wallacea and New Guinea”. Manuscripts on zoology, botany, ecology & nature conservation are welcome.
Attached: „Call for papers iv.pdf” (ca. 85 KB), „instructions.pdf“ (ca 62 KB).
Relevant answer
Answer
This topic is now closed, the volume IV is now complete and ready to print.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
4 answers
KK
Relevant answer
Answer
yes Andrew you are right. The text has been changed to sth not readable.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
I aim to do a PhD in the future (on the general topic of ecology and biogeography) and would like to do a masters before this to make myself a more competitive candidate. However, I am pretty stuck on whether an MRes on a relevant topic or a skills based MSc (in Remote Sensing and GIS) would be a better option?
Relevant answer
Answer
Good advice from Saeed and Andrew.
My two cents. For employability, select GIS. Some of my students with a good GIS grasp where headhunted before completion of their MSc. If you have a passion for research and aim at academia, do a PhD. From there to post-doc is the highest hurdle for most (in my experience).
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
7 answers
Let us consider a set of fossil occurrences of the same lineage in two separated geographic spaces (e. g., two landmasses, two hydrographic basins, two ocean basins).
Given such dataset, would it be possible to use the time intervals of fossil occurrences to calculate dispersal time estimates, or the earliest occurrence of the lineage in the geographic space to which it has dispersed? What would be the best method to use?
Relevant answer
Answer
please find the following link, I hope helpful to you.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
8 answers
Hi All,
Are you an expertise in getting ancient DNA? Currently I am looking researchers who have expertise in getting DNA from old herbaria collections. Even better if you have it with Ascomycota (Fungi). If so and you like to collaborate with taxonomist to work in projects about systematics, evolution and biogeography, please contact me at lquijull@gmail.com or luis_quijada@fas.harvard.edu and write in the subject of the email "ancient DNA". I am looking for collaboration to learn these technics but also you will be coauthor of the results of this project that start in July.
Best wishes
Luis
Relevant answer
Answer
we have extracted DNA from ca. 30-50 years old herbarium basidio samples including some types, though this age is not that “ancient”…
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
11 answers
I am currently looking for Invasive Alien Plant Species (IAPS) Occurrence-Data for mainly the Tropics including Africa, South America, & Asia tropical regions. If you know any research-networks or sources (published and/or Unpublished) of this data, please point me to it. The data would be mainly used for IAPS - Species Distribution Modelling.
NB: I have already gone through most of the data from International Databases (e.g.GBIF and GISD), however.. it is abit lacking.
I thank you in advance for your responses.
Sincerely,
NM
Relevant answer
Answer
GBIF provides data worldwide https://www.gbif.org/
Look also to previous analogous question's answers
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
4 answers
Do you have any suggestions regarding good computer software or programs for a systematic review? I am new to this type of research, can you please guide me in doing such? The topic would focus on biogeography/ecology.
Thank you very much.
Relevant answer
Answer
Olawale Festus Olaniyan has given a good way to go.
Objective of your study and selection criteria are two important factors to be first set out before embarking on this study. Of course, there must be various (earlier) studies focussing on different line of thoughts, you have to succinctly define what you want and streamline results of those studies convergently by a way of excluding some and retaining those that align with your aim. Those studies would give you appropiate end result from filtering several articles.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
6 answers
I am working on a biogeographic study, in which to assess the latitudinal diversity gradient of amphibians in the Malay Peninsula. Thus, I’m required to examine the effects of utilizing different distribution data such as IUCN range maps, GBIF, modeled distribution, and a combination of those data, in mapping species richness in the Malay Peninsula.
My question is, what kind of statistical analysis that is suitable to compare the performances of these different distribution data in mapping species richness?
Relevant answer
Answer
So, it is geographical scale of species richness you have to do. But take care patterns of moutain-scale patterns & what about fresh-water as you are studyinf amphibians? I'm attaching a book on species richness. As well I agree with Andrew that in this case ou can use some indices of diversity (may be better to say "commonality). All known indices of commonality are divided into two groups depending on whether, they take into account or ignore the number of negative matches (d). The greatest value in environmental jobs are indexed in the formula which includes the number of positive coincidences.
It is offered a huge number of indices of commonality, but more often in biocenological, faunistic and biogeographic studies are used indices of Jaccard and Sørensen – Czekanowski. These coefficients are equal to 1 in case of complete coincidence of the types of communities and equal to 0 if the samples are completely different and do not include the common types. In comparing should understand that standard mistake of methods is normally higher than statistical mistake.
Indices of community that take into account negative matches, usually when comparing collections when is known full species lists. The use of this group of indices in biogeographic studies were subjected to serious criticism. Limited use have indexes that take into account negative matches, due to their large dependent from a rare species that can not get into the sample.
I know minimum 10 indices based on comparing the qualitative data. For quantitative is very useful Sørensen for the data with abundance!
Andrey
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
11 answers
I am looking for current bibliography (books, articles...) about biogeography, specially about oceans, marine paleogeography and marine biodiversity patterns of distribution
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
Do any Caytonia-type cupules exceed one centimeter in greatest dimension?
Relevant answer
Answer
Here is a medullosean ovule at Grenoble Alp university ( OSUG's collection) this material comes from Belgium in Charleroi basin, middle Pennsylvanian age , more 90 millimeters long and associated with Alethopteris foliage.Best regards.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
7 answers
Dear all,
I am stuck with a non-significant quadratic regression model (see attachment). The independent variable is altitude, whereas the dependent/response variable is species richness (count data). I have tried to log-transform the independent variable but p value is still greater than 0.05.
I am studying the elevational pattern of plant species richness. Simple count of species along the elevation leads to a ‘hump-shaped pattern of species richness’. Part of my methods is to generate a quadratic model of this pattern.
Is it worth to publish this research even though the quadratic model is insignificant? Do I have other alternatives? Please advise.
Thank you,
Faiz
Relevant answer
Answer
Hello Faiz,
It appears that the biggest challenge for your analysis is that you have so few data points (N = 5 sets of species/altitude measurements). That makes it difficult to show statistical significance for the overall regression model as well as for individual regression coefficients.
For sake of example, let's presume that your adjusted R-squared of .61 is the true value in the population. That would mean your sample size would need to have been at least 10 cases for the overall R-squared to have been statistically signficant at the .05 level (assuming observed R-squared of .61, of course).
Via G*Power (available at: http://www.gpower.hhu.de/), planning a prospective study to have a power of at least .90 to detect an R-squared of .61 with two IVs/predictors in a model and testing at the .05 level, the requisite sample size would be 12 cases.
So, the answer to the statistical significance issue is, more data are required.
The answer to whether other researchers in your discipline would find the results that you do have to be of interest, I unfortunately am unable to answer.
Good luck with your work!
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
1 answer
mutation in biogeography based optimization differs from genetic algorithm?
Relevant answer
Answer
Both try to Exchange information, genetic by using UNDX or PCX créate new elements in the middle or near to the parents. Biogeography combines trhoudgh lienar information from the parents.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
6 answers
In the urgent need to obtain reliable information quickly for the development of effective conservation plans, it is very useful to be able to combine tools from other disciplines to detect patterns and gaps in the information. I would appreciate if you can share your opinions and experiences!
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
7 answers
Dear colleagues,
a MaxEnt model of the present distribution of a South American spider species based on 30 collection points (crossvalidated by running 30 replicates, regularization multiplier 0.5 and 1000 maximum iterations) resulted in an average test AUC ˂ 0.7, which is considered too low for further use (Swets, 1988).
Apart from the question if the AUC is suitable to measure the models performance (Lobo et al. 2008), could it be that there is a biological reason for the low AUC? E.g. that the used abiotic variables are not as important as for other species or that we are dealing with two separate species? If so, wouldn't it be advisable to discuss this model anyway, despite the low AUC?
Your opinion or reference to existing literature would be highly appreciated.
Best regards, Robert
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Robert, I've produced lots of relatively poor-performing distribution models using Maxent and I think what is happening in many cases is biological and methodological. Methodological because your explanatory or predictive variables aren't the right ones, or don't capture distributional constraints adequately. Biological because the species of interest is a generalist in some niche dimensions, and the model is indicating that the predictor or sets of predictors is relatively uninformative because biologically the range that they exhibit doesn't impact distribution. Bit convoluted but hope that makes sense.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
1 answer
I am working with biogeography of southern Paraguay and the info about Paraguay river evolution is relevant for my work. So, if someone could help me, I will be very gratefull! Specially, I have not any info about the Center and South Paraguay river evolution. Brazilian Pantanal and Formosa, Argentina, have information I already get, but nothing about paraguayan sections of actual river course.
Thanks
Relevant answer
Answer
Sadly, this seems to be the "lost arc" of natural sciences knowledge in Paraguay...?
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
Are you interested in joining our Juglandaceae-network?
We are working on global biogeography and conservation of the relict tree family Juglandaceae. However, the distribution and status knowledge of many species of Meso- and South America are not well known.
We are searching therefore for local experts of Oreomunnea mexicana. According to our knowledge, the species is present in Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The indications from Colombia need revision. Please see the attached schematic map with known distribution (administrative units & countries).
Any information, maps, publications, reports, personal observations, etc. from your region are interesting for us.
Relevant answer
Answer
Oreomunnea mexicana (Standl.) J.-F.Leroy
Syn. Engelhardia nicaraguensis Ant. Molina
Common names include guayabo amarillo and remiendo. Various research works running on conservation of this plant species.
This plant found in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. See https://www.gbif.org/species/7310542
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
15 answers
Trees don’t grow in deserts (e.g., Sahara). Why? – The answer to this question is based on a particular combination of evolutionary history, physiology and ecology.
Do you agree with this statement?
Could you explain your point of view?
[I’m a Brazilian biologist and writer. I write about science (mainly about population biology) and would like to know the opinion of colleagues from any field of scientific knowledge (and from other countries).]
See also Habitat, environment and ecological niche (https://www.researchgate.net/post/Habitat_environment_and_ecological_niche).
Relevant answer
Answer
The relative absence of vegetation in the Sahara is partly due to overgrazing by domestic animals. Have a look at the satellite view of Sidi Toui National Park, Tunisia:
This part of the Sahara is surrounded by a fence, and no domestic animals are let in (but the endemic ungulate Scimitar Oryx is living and grazing here). This part of the Sahara is an arid grassland, scattered with some trees:
Cheers,
Lajos
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
40 answers
At this very moment (2 September; 22h00, local time), the National Museum (MN, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), one of the most important museums of natural history in the world, is burning in flames.
In addition to the exhibitions open to the public, the MN housed some of the largest and most important scientific collections existing in Brazil. The collections of biological items included thousands of types (insects, reptiles, birds, mammals, plants, etc.).
To the taxonomists (and other colleagues): You could say how many specimens (mainly types) collected or described by you were deposited in MN? And to what taxonomic groups (family or above) these specimens belonged?
[In 2016, a coup d’état turned Brazil in a country with no future. Now, in his final months at the head of the Government, the President Michel Temer wants also to ensure that the country erase its own past.]
Relevant answer
Answer
I appreciate colleagues for the comments and for the suggestions.
The Brazilian press (newspapers etc.) is biased and shallow and I don’t take it too seriously. On the other hand, article published yesterday (4/9) in The Guardian had the following title: ‘Brazil National Museum: as much as 90% of collection destroyed in fire.’ At the moment, two considerations must be made: (i) this percentage should vary greatly among the different sectors of the institution (from 0% to 100% of loss); and (ii) the fact is that no one yet knows the extent of the losses.
I don’t work in the National Museum (MN) and I don’t even live in the city of Rio de Janeiro. However, a friend of mine who works at the MN sent me today (5/9) some enlightening information (especially about the biological collections), as can be read below:
(1) The so-called Imperial Palace housed most of the collections of the MN. In this building were, among others, the Department of Entomology (except part of Diptera) and part of the collections of mollusks and arachnids. Total loss: collections of insects, including several hundreds of types (e.g., about 1.300 beetle holotypes), in addition to the collections of mollusks and arachnids (but 80% of the types of mollusks have been preserved, because they were in a building annex). The departments of Geology & Paleontology and Anthropology also stayed in this main building. Total loss: the collection of Egyptian relicts (e.g., mummies) and the social anthropology library. However, some items (e.g., meteorites) are being found and collected. The building still housed an electron microscope.
(2) Outside the Palace are the following sectors: the central library; the departments of Vertebrates and of Botany; a small part of Archaeology and some laboratories of invertebrates. All are preserved.
(3) An annex to the Palace (‘Annex Alípio de Miranda Ribeiro’) was preserved. In this building are part of the the sector of dipterology and the collections of invertebrates (except mollusks and arachnids).
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
22 answers
Habitat, environment and ecological niche are three distinct concepts.
Do you agree with this statement?
Could you explain your point of view?
[I’m a Brazilian biologist and writer. I write about science (mainly about population biology) and would like to know the opinion of colleagues from any field of scientific knowledge (and from other countries).]
See also Evolution, Darwinism and selection (https://www.researchgate.net/post/Evolution_Darwinism_and_selection).
Relevant answer
Answer
Habitat is a place where an organism lives in nature.
Environment is the sum total of all physical, chemical, biotic and cultural factors that affects life of organism in any way.
Ecological niche is physical space occupied by an organism, its functional role in community and its position in environmental gradients including other conditions of existence. These three aspects of ecological niche are designated as follows:
(i) the spatial niche (physical space occupied)
(ii) the trophic niche (functional role i.e. trophic position); and
(iii) the multidimensional or hypervolume niche (position in the environmental gradients)
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
1 answer
I have been studying on Anatolian ground squirrel for about 20 years. For a while, I have also been interested in the ENM aprroach. Across its geographic distribution, I have been collecting tissue samples every about 20-40 km, and, in the meantime, occurrence records. So, I need a standard method to quantify number of populations (of occupied patches) to associate that measure with suitability obtained by ENM approach. It is difficult for me to quantify population density in a patch because I do field studies across the range. But, I have an observation that frequency of observation (encountering with an individual) tends to be high in areas of high suitability while travelling and collecting tissue samples across a region. That is, the methodology should be compatible with that I am travelling and collecting tissue samples and occurrence records across 100-200 km every day. Note that frequency of observation is also associated with time of day and season!
Relevant answer
Answer
Hakan, do you plan to examine population genetics from the collected tissue samples? If so, there are a number of approaches that could potentially address some of your questions. First, you could quantify population structure and simply overlay that with your ENM map to get a visual of how distance and/or unsuitable areas may be contributing to differentiation among populations. There are a number of landscape genetic methods that essentially combine the genetic data with ENM (and other geospatial data) to quantify the relative contribution of different landscape features towards population differentiation (e.g., BEDASSLE; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/evo.12193#support-information-section )
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
10 answers
Analysing morphology-habitat relationships in a montane plant species, I am thinking of using slope exposition (i.e., northern, southern slopes, etc.) as one of the habitat features, since a direct measuring of all the associated microclimatic factors appears problematic. I have plant samples from many sites within a montane area of ca. 1300 squared kilometres and for each site I have slope sexposition data (cardinal and inter-cardinal directions). I need to correlate this data with leaf morphometric anatomical/morphological traits.
I would be grateful if someone could also recommend some papers reporting relationships between plant growth/occurrence and slope exposition in mountains.
Relevant answer
Answer
Alternatively, you can break your directions into a north-south and an east-west aspect component.You require assignation of angles or compass directions in degrees. Depending on your study system, one of these slope aspect components might be of greatest interest (for example if working at a temperate latitude, most likely you would expect the degree of N-S orientation to matter more biologically, due to the difference in solar incidences). If you take the cos (angle) this will give you the N-S component as a numeric form ranging from 1 to -1, with 1 being N (0 or 360 degrees) and -1 being S (180), zero indicates a compete east or west exposition. The Sin(angle) is the E-W component, again ranging from 1 (East) to -1 (West). Then you can run correlations and linear regressions with your data.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
Ecological niche modeling is increasingly important for understanding the factors that shape species distributions, as well as testing biogeographical hypotheses about species past, present, and future distributions as well as the role of ecology in speciation. However, most niche modeling work has focused on terrestrial and marine species (sound like conservation biology, in general?). I have previously used MAXENT to develop and project models of fish distributions, and the models we have published exhibited excellent predictive performance. And I am very interested in continuing to do so, particularly through coupling ENMs with phylogeographic analyses, and/or using them to inform phylogeographic hypotheses testing. However, I am skeptical of all models to some degree, and I am wanting to learn whether other techniques exist that would be more suitable for freshwater fish ecological niche modeling and paleoclimatic modeling, other than MAXENT (which is obviously most convenient for me). I am also interested in what the best data layers are for ENM analyses of freshwater habitats. I always want to learn more about these topics, so I figured I would ask here.
So, first, do such 'better' ENM models exist that could/should be used instead of or in combination with MAXENT? And, if so, what is required to run such other models, and how would the assumptions of these potentially 'better' models differ from those of MAXENT in different cases?
Second, it seems that a limitation of ecological niche modeling for freshwater taxa is a lack of sufficiently high resolution data layers for aquatic habitats. However, I am unsure about geospatial data repositories or resources for generating more suitable layers, and I would like specific advice about GIS procedures and data layers for making better data coverages. I am aware that some people are already doing this, but usually at very fine spatial scales. The broader community of ecologists and evolutionary biologists interested in fishes would therefore benefit much more from more comprehensive coverages.
FYI, I should indicate that I am not really interested in using masks over bioclimatic variables to restrict model output to the boundaries of stream and river networks, because many pilot analyses I have run on North American species suggest this does not add much or produce different results relative to running the models without such masks. So, I would prefer to avoid such discussion unless you know or can show me that doing so improves model performance. Thanks in advance for your replies. Take care.
Relevant answer
Answer
As an update to this question, I'd like to point out that there are some recently published papers that 1) demonstrate that it remains possible to predict the distributions of freshwater fishes (and other obligate freshwater taxa) using ENM approaches such as MaxEnt (e.g. Cao et al. 2013; Campbell and Hildebrand 2017; and several others), and 2) demonstrate that bioclimatic variables work well as a proxy of stream habitat variables (e.g. McGarvey et al. 2017).
I am particularly encouraged by the McGarvey et al. (2017) paper in Ecography, which shows that at the scale of the Columbia River watershed the performance of building MaxEnt SDMs from climate covariates/layers as proxies for variation in in-stream "environments" inhabited by fishes (which in reality include a variety of in-stream variables such as hydrological parameters) is essentially equivalent to that of SDMs based on "instream covariates" (hydrological data layers).
One common theme in some recent papers is to model only within the hydrological network, at high spatial resolution (e.g. 30 arc-seconds); however, while results from this approach are easily and beautifully visualized over smaller spatial scales (e.g. within states, regions), in my experience doing this at larger spatial scales (e.g. subcontinental scales) gives results that are much harder to visualize. At larger scales, it may be best 1) to use a discrete symbology for displaying prediction/habitat suitability within river networks, if they are used; 2) to model at the HUC rather than network scale (e.g. Cao et al. 2013); or 3) simply not to mask to hydrological network at all (make continuous plots and interpret them in the context of hydrology).
REFERENCES
Campbell, C. A., & Hilderbrand, R. H. (2017). Using maximum entropy to predict suitable habitat for the endangered dwarf wedgemussel in the Maryland Coastal Plain. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 27(2), 462-475.
Cao, Y., DeWalt, R. E., Robinson, J. L., Tweddale, T., Hinz, L., & Pessino, M. (2013). Using Maxent to model the historic distributions of stonefly species in Illinois streams: the effects of regularization and threshold selections. Ecological Modelling, 259, 30-39.
McGarvey, D. J., Menon, M., Woods, T., Tassone, S., Reese, J., Vergamini, M., & Kellogg, E. (2017). On the use of climate covariates in aquatic species distribution models: are we at risk of throwing out the baby with the bath water? Ecography.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
Do the Satpura hypothesis, Brij Hypothesis stands good for this ecological puzzle
Relevant answer
Answer
The Satpura Hypothesis is not really necessary to explain these distributions. Insofar as some of these taxa genuinely require a cooler environment, this was widely available at the last glacial maximum. However, some of them may not survive in between the Himalayas and the Ghats due to widespread anthropogenic changes. In this latter context, mountains are simply those areas where anthropogenic transformation was not possible on as broad a scale as elsewhere.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
Dear colleagues, herein some points that I would like some discussion and, if possible, some answers in regards to global fungal richness estimates:
The question of how many species of Fungi there are has occasioned much speculation, as said Dr. D. Hawksworth and Dr. R. Lücking, but the estimatives, in many cases are too big!
Do we have any estimates of the species richness of all fungi for the neotropical region?
And what is the most up-to-date estimate for fungal species richness globally?
Is it possible to determine how much of this corresponds to soil mycobiota?
How sensitive are the methods of estimating fungal richness?
Attached, some useful papers:
HAWKSWORTH (2012) and HAWKSWORTH & LÜCKING (2017)
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Francisco, thank you for the information provided. The attached files may provide you some more information.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
I'm looking for community-level datasets older than 20 years, at the landscape spatial-scale (i.e. multiple survey points in space), for any taxa or region.
If you know any dataset with these characteristics, please list it in the answers (hopefully with a related reference or website).
Thank a lot for your help,
All the best for 2018!
Cheers,
David.-
Relevant answer
Answer
Any kind of community data. It could be an assessment of the entire community of any taxa, or a specific assemblage. And it could be species composition (presences-absences) or relative abundances; in just one survey or multiple surveys.
I am actually carrying out a review of databases suitable to the study of species redistribution in space and time due to environmental change, so the main filter is that it should have several survey points within a region and in a not-so-wide temporal window in the past to make predictions on the present composition of these communities using ecological modelling.
Thank for your answer Kenneth.
Cheers
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
What were the general inferences concluded after the phylogeny reconstruction?
Relevant answer
Answer
Check the attached articles.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
I tried searching for full text of this book but ended up with only 2-3 pages book reviews.
Relevant answer
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
4 answers
Dear all!
Could you recomend me program which demonstrate a distribution of species? especcialy rare ones? I have some data connecting with occure populations of species in region and would like create a maps. Thanks in advance!
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Anzhelika,
any geographic information system (GIS) software will be able to do it for you. There are freewares, such as QuantumGIS/QGIS, GRASS GIS, SAGA GIS etc., and commercial ones, e.g. MapInfo, ESRI ArcGIS, Idrisi, Autodesk AutoCAG Map 3D etc. I attached a list and a comparison of GIS softwares.
If you are familiar with R statistical software, you should definitely try it's GIS packages (sp, rgdal, sf, raster, gstat, rgeos, spdep, maptools, spatstat, dismo, rworldmap, fields and many others). Some GIS package have built-in plotting function, but you may be interested in packages specifically designed for displaying spatial data, such as ggmap, RgoogleMaps, quickmapr and so on. See 'Visualisation' section of the attached r-project.org link for further details.
HTH,
Ákos
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
Are there any evidences of anthropochorous origin of some Erinaceidae populations in the continental areas?
Are there also any evidences, in some populations, of recent expansion in the distribution area?
Thanks
Armando
Relevant answer
Answer
Classically African hedgerows in Spain are considered as anthropocorous, yet this should be carefully re-examined also with genetic data
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
I am looking for help finding clear and relatively certain material about the when and where of the migrations of haplogroup h, including any details about the cultures, the climates, and the geography. Thank you.
Relevant answer
Answer
Your welcome! Hopefully they prove helpful. 
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
Good day
I am doing a study on landscape genetics at a fine-scale and need to use the program GESTE however I'm struggling to create the factor input file.
Can anybody please help me with this?
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Stephanie
Thank you for your response...
I understand that each row represents a factor and that the values are for each site.
So if I have a factor of altitude, my values would be the altitude itself right? Or is it an arbitrary number that represents each altitude?
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
4 answers
Landscape history of Dehesa Montado.
Relevant answer
Answer
Currently we are working on dehesa in Andalusia (see attached). Further, for your consideration a somewhat older article from dehesa in Extremadura and the most recent historical overview I have come across.
Evidently, we are interest in your experience with P. cinnamomi in dehesa or otherwise in oak, if any.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
Dear all
I try to do a simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) models to take the spatial correlation into account (Kissling & Carl, 2008). I already selected the best combinations of weight list and neighbours distance by using the value of AIC and minRSA. But I have problem on how to calculate the relative importance of each predictor, especially on calculating the model fit using pseudo-R2 (Pearson correlation of observed and predicted values) and Akaike weights (w). 
<SAR models were run for all possible subsets of the five predictor variables (n = 32 models) under a multi-model inference approach. For each subset model, an Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) score was calculated and used to select the most parsimonious model (Akaike, 1987) and model fit was assessed using pseudo-R2 (Pearson correlation of observed and predicted values). The relative importance of each climate and soil variable for explaining mean range size variation was determined by summing the Akaike weights (w) across all models containing the target variable> a method in Rachael V. Gallagher Journal of Biogeography (J. Biogeogr.) (2016) 43, 1287–1298
Can anyone give some suggestions on how to do the above analysis?
Thanks
Relevant answer
Answer
Calculating the relative importance of any AIC value can be negative (AIC < 0). Actually, the absolute values of the AIC scores do not matter. In practice, criteria of lower AIC (-243) is preferred over the model with AIC = 67.
It is proper that sometimes values became negative A.I.C. However, fitting all models to the same data can lead to "negative log-likelihood density function", especially data with small sample size, and relatively large number of parameters.,
Hope this helps
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
12 answers
to detect the factors that accelerate the occurrence of rigor mortis
Relevant answer
Answer
agreed with mushtaq ahmad
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
Coecobrya tenebricosa is a small collembolan species noted at least from North America and Europe (data eg. from www.gbif.org). The species was described from USA (Washington D.C.) but actually is known also from at least a few Europen countries. I am looking for information about its original distribution (is it native for N America?) as well as about its actual species range.
Thank you in advance for your comments and help.
Regards,
Radomir
Relevant answer
Answer
This species is absent in Latvia, consider http://leb.daba.lv/40-ju1.pdf 
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
6 answers
Some species of Bangladeshi ECM fungi (bolete) are very close ancestor to Australian/Malaysian bolete in molecular analysis, some other saprophytic fungi as well. So, how they (ECM fungi or saprophytic fungi) distribute/migrate from Australia to South Asia or vice versa? What are the possible causes for the common disjunction between South Asian fungi and Australian fungi? 
Thanks for sharing your valuable idea.  
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
I am interested in whether or not there is any evidence of historical distributions of extant seabird groups in the North, particularly in relation to glacial recession, but have not been able to locate any specific sources for this information.
Relevant answer
Answer
Here are a couple of potentially useful papers (Miller; Sexson), although they are somewhat small-scale and focused on very recent (late 20th/early 21st CE) climate change and glacial melting effects; I suspect other more recent papers can be found on the topic. More broadly and historically...there must be something related to either the recent Little Ice Age (~1400-1800 C.E./A.D.) or the last major Ice Age (< 20,000 B.C.E.) - I assume more what you are interested in - but I haven't found it. I've found a couple sources on the former for Antarctic and sub-Tropical birds species (e.g., a 1000-year time series in the 3rd attached file, numerous penguin studies...) - let me know if these might be of interest.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
Im attempting to reconstruct precontact land-use in the Rockies around an archaeological site recently found along the Ram River. Beyond very few published sites, it seems to be hard to find information on sites in this area beyond consulting reports. I have information on the James Pass Site, Lake Minnewanka (Banff Area), Vermilion Lakes (Banff Area), The Patricia Lake Site (Jasper Area). Does anyone have reports from the Red Deer River Drainage? Or ongoing research in the Kootenai Plains? 
Thank you! 
Relevant answer
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
6 answers
We're producing SDMs for Central American birds from citizen science (eBird) data. Our models work really well (AUC typically around 0.95) when we don't include a bias grid, but when we add a bias grid (based on density of eBird observations), AUC falls significantly, and models predict species well outside their current range (from BirdLife database).
Surprised by this...anyone had similar experiences when using bias grids?
# observations (locations) range from 35 to high hundreds across our 28 species.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hello Andrew, 
Yes in my experience using MaxEnt I did have similar problems when using a bias grid. This may be based on the actual distribution of the species itself. If you are using a bias grid you are implying the observations you have is influenced by observer bias.
But once the higher density of points are actually representative of the nature of the species it would negatively affect your AUC values.
I do however agree with Van Gills comment and have resorted to a minimum accepted distance between observations, but again i caution you should take into consideration the species itself. 
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
i have about 50 grids and have conducted honey's analysis using Devi Jankowitz rep grid manual. I further need better tools like clustering. 
Relevant answer
Answer
Thanks for your time and reply. I will look i this up. Most softwares work on a single rep grid not multiple grids. 
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
18 answers
i am working on distribution of a particular vulture species distribution in relation to climatic and anthropogenic factors only. So i am bit confuse whether it will be a ecology or biogeographical study or something else, as above mention topic are very vast and will it be appropriate to use any one of them?. Thank you
Relevant answer
Answer
@Wayne. Why 'living'? Why 'natural'? On the latter, how do we know in each case a priori? What is the time scale of natural? Is, for example Yellowstone NP natural on a time scale of one or two centuries?
@Roman. Geography and biology overlap considerably. Geography is the older one. Both sciences share five of the ten most well-known concepts of ecology (ESA survey): scale, ecosystem, habitat, population and community. Both sciences operates on a range of scales. 
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
11 answers
I'm searching for an English term (and possible some references) to define the introduction of an alien species in an area which belongs politically to the same Country of origin of the species but previously did not present for biogeography or ecological matters. For example this happened often with freshwater fishes. Thank you!
Relevant answer
Answer
The term alien species is synonym of introduced, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species. Refers to a species living outside its native distributional range, which has arrived there by human activity, either deliberate or accidental. Non-native species can have various effects on the local ecosystem. Introduced species that become established and spread beyond the place of introduction are called invasive species.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
15 answers
In Northern Europe, Chenopodium album, which is now recognized as a global weed species, was a secondary crop in Europe during the Iron Age. Although we have evidence that the species Chenopodium album L. had an importance as a crop in Europe, a domesticated form also existed in the Himalayas. Why researchers and breeders concentrated their efforts in Europe to adapt to temperate climates only the Chenopodium quinoa Willd, a tropical species. Considered for breeding programs this crop from the highlands of the Andes is adapted to growth at relatively low temperatures. The recent expansion of quinoa near the Mediterranean Sea is changing the context. Today, we could revise this view to use more adaptive capacities of C. album.
Relevant answer
Answer
Dear Didier,
I agree with the resurrection of local neglected crops. I came across your question looking for a history of breeding of Chenopodium album in Europe. I am looking for local landraces and varieties developed in the 1800- early 1900s or beyond, and their geographic distribution. I am interesting in pre-breeding research to assess neglected crops such as C. album or others from legume, grass and sunflower families. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
2 answers
"Is there any possibility of bitumen/ asphalt releasing carbon dioxide while being heated upto 170 degree centigrade. Though its known that its ignition temperature is ~400°C still if you have any opinion or test results with you.... please share
Relevant answer
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
It is well-known that different aspects on the same mountain may possess quite different enviromental traits or even species pools (e.g. in the northern hemisphere, the southern slope of a mountain is generally warmer and often drier than the northern slope of the same mountain). It is thus reasonable to infer that there may be different elevational patterns of species richness along different slope aspects on a mountain. However, such an effect seems to be ignored and most studies on elevational richness patterns generally survey one aspect on a given mountain. Could anyone recommend some related publications or does anyone have related studying experience in this field?
Relevant answer
Answer
I have only to offer an indirect case. The number of endemic plants in this case increases with elevation; only for a few endemics incoming solar radiation (a more fundamental environmental variable) predicts the distribution (Table II in the attached); aspect (a crude proxy for slope aspect) is not predictive for any endemic here.
However, the number of endemics is probably not correlated with the total number of plant species at the square km resolution (the two botanical gardens with the local species of the research area are likely to show the maximum value).For the entire research area my guess would be that the highest number of plant species per km square is reached in the open deciduous oak forest (sub-mediterranean) below 1000 m, but relative few endemics are found here. 
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
3 answers
I'm curious if anyone has used the positive relationship between latitude and the length-dry mass power coefficients for aquatic insects found in this paper (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259550032_The_biogeography_of_insects%27_length-dry_mass_relationships) and compared it with northern european populations?
Relevant answer
Answer
Makes 25 years found that the plants tropical Cuban in West had leaves more small that the Oriental. Long after I made a data base with the Cuban endemic plants. It first that could make was an index of aridity biological large scale starting from the centers of origin of the flora, as well as an index of speciation. When performing a correlation table, I found that the Cuban western plains are less arid than the West. Therefore, the known variations of due to this. Other comparisons I allowed to find other many correlations. These comparisons allowed me to determine that variations in the phylogeny can be dichotomous, but the geological and climatic are reticulate. On the other hand, climatic and geological variables are independent variables, while the phylogeny is always dependent variable.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
4 answers
Hi, 
I have two variables, Temp (T) and Latitude (L). I have a DEM (E). I need to interpolate T from point shape file to each pixel of E. 
the relation is as follow: 
TE1,L1 = TE0,L0 - (E1-E0)*G - (L1-L0)*P
where, TE1,L1 = new interpolated raster value of each pixel
E0 = Elevation of temperature station 
E1 = Elevation of new location, which will be each pixel of raster DEM
L0 = latitude of station
L1 = latitude  of each pixel of DEM
G & P = constant values to multiply 
here, I am looking for R code or method to do this in ArcGIS. 
any clues are appreciated. 
many thanks. 
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Madan,
to test your dependency in R, apply a linear model with the two variables (E)levation and (L)atitude. Use all the (T)emperature data that you have to set up this model:
LM_T <- lm(T~E+L)
you can see the coefficients and intercepts with:
LM_T_summary <- summary(LM_T)
LM_T_summary$coefficients
The summary also tells you how good/bad your model is!
Then just apply the model. You can use the raster package:
install.packages("raster")
require(raster)
E.r <- raster("yourDEMfile.tif")
L.r <- raster("yourLatitudefile.tif")
In order to apply the coefficients you need to make sure the two raster files have the same extent and resolution. You could resample one of them for example:
L.r_resampled <- resample(L.r , E.r , 'ngb')
# ngb is nearest neighbour
and finally:
T.r <- E.r*coefficientForElevations + L.r_resampled*coefficientForLatitude + intercepts
Good luck
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
I wanted to know whether the universal primers like ITS, matK etc can help in resolving the members of a monotypic( single species) genus.
Relevant answer
Answer
Hi Sora,
After the clarification you provided let me ensure you that there is no clear case can answer your question in a general form. You have to test it first, the easiest way is to search for the ITS and/or matK sequences of the species under study at any nt database, then do a simple analysis to determine whether the species posses an intra-specific variations enough for your study. The other way is to select few of the most different samples (e.g. different locations, morphotraits, collection period... etc.) and  sequence the ITS and/or matK before proceeding with all your samples.
I may also recommend combining a cpDNA region (e.g. ycf, rbcL...etc.) along with the nuclear ones as the genetic variation and phylogeny are something a bit different from DNA barcoding.
Best of Luck! 
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
1. To use all species available for such mapping, even the correlated species ones, because they have slightly different distributions. Also, it seems to me that using all species available for such mapping will force a cluster in areas with the same species composition, and this is the objective of the mapping.
Or
2. Exclude the correlated species and use just one of them.
If someone has an opinion about that, I would appreciate.
Relevant answer
Answer
I think you would want to go with the first approach.  A super helpful paper on the issue that I enjoyed (and which you may have seen already?) is:  Kreft H, Jetz W. 2010. A framework for delineating biogeographical regions based on species distributions. Journal of Biogeography 37:2029-53.
  • asked a question related to Biogeography
Question
5 answers
If I want to conduct study about diversity and biogeography of coastal marine gastropod, is there any minimum area of sampling that required to obtain the information if i use plot method? 
Relevant answer
Answer
dear dmitry,
i mean measuring diversity by taxonomic id
dear all,
thank you for the answer. and if I want to use plot based method, how many plot that I need/replication to maximize the likeness of species list that inhabit in one island/area? and what plot configuration is commonly used to obtain that information? thank you
  • asked a question related to Biogeography