Biogeography - Lectures

lgeo1332a  2021-2022  Louvain-la-Neuve

Biogeography - Lectures
3.00 credits
30.0 h
Q2
Teacher(s)
Nieberding Caroline; Wesselingh Renate;
Language
French
Main themes
Knowledge of ecology is essential in understanding species distributions, and the first part of the course (A) teaches elementary ecology for those students who do not have this knowledge yet. The second part of the course (B) looks at both historical and ecological explanations for present-day distributions, and the practical work aims to illustrate the diversity in species composition in different biogeographical zones in Belgium.
Content
The partial course LGEO1332A contains the theoretical part of the complete course LGEO1332, without the practical work.
Historical biogeography (15h, Caroline Nieberding)
Historical factors that influence present-day distributions: continental drift, climate change, mass extinctions; global distribution of diversity at higher taxonomic levels; phytogeographical kingdoms and zoogeographical provinces; centres of origin; vicariance; long-distance dispersal; ice ages; Quaternary phylogeography; glacial refugia; diversification.
Ecological biogeography (15h, Renate Wesselingh)
Patterns of biodiversity: counting species, gradients of biodiversity, hotspots, diversity in time (succession, climax), richness and diversity.
Patterns of distribution: geographical range, methods to represent distribution ranges on maps, effects of scale, limits to distributions, overcoming the barriers, types of connections, relictual distributions, endemism, dispersal, invasions, migration, the ecological niche, niche overlap, fundamental and realized niche.
Communities and ecosystems: community richness, alpha, beta, gamma, and delta richness, diversity index, closed and open communities, plant growth forms, plant formations, biomes, zonal vegetations, arid regions, interzonal vegetations, predictive models.
Island biogeography : types of islands, arriving on an island, species-area relationships, surviving on an island, the Theory of Island Biogeography, evolution and speciation on islands, adaptive radiation, insularity syndromes.
Teaching methods
Lectures.
Evaluation methods
Written exam with open questions, with two separate series of questions, one for each section. The average of the two scores will be calculated to give the final score.
Other information
Basic knowledge of the principles of ecology is required (e.g. LBIO1117).
Online resources
Bibliography
Cox, C.B. & P. D. Moore (2005). Biogeography, an ecological and evolutionary approach (7th edition). Blackwell Publishing
Teaching materials
  • Diaporamas des cours théoriques sous forme de fichiers pdf, disponibles sur Moodle
  • Livres et documents de référence, disponibles sur Moodle
Faculty or entity
GEOG


Programmes / formations proposant cette unité d'enseignement (UE)

Title of the programme
Sigle
Credits
Prerequisites
Learning outcomes
Master [120] in History of Art and Archaeology : General

Additionnal module in Biology