Schneider, Christopher J., and Williams, Stephen E. (2005) Effects of quaternary climate change and rainforest diversity: insights from spatial analyses of species and genes in Australia’s wet tropics. In: Bermingham, Eldredge, Dick, Christopher W., and Moritz, Craig, (eds.) Tropical Rainforests : past, present and future. Chicago University Press, Chicago, USA, pp. 401-424.

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Abstract

Biogeographic patterns are often used to generate hypotheses concerning the evolutionary and ecological processes that structure patterns of species distribution and diversity. However, biogeographic patterns alone are often insufficient to infer historical processes. In this chapter we illustrate how analyses of molecular population genetic variation combined with spatial analyses of species distribution and diversity can provide strong inference of historical processes shaping current patterns of diversity at several hierarchical levels. The strengths of these analyses are multiplied when independent paleoecological data exist. We illustrate this approach using endemic vertebrate species from the Wet Tropics of Australia. We demonstrate that Quaternary climatic fluctuations, and associated changes in rainforest distribution and extent, have left an identifiable footprint on local, landscape, and regional patterns of genetic diversity, species distribution and diversity, and community composition.

Item ID:	1679
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-0-226-04466-8
Keywords:	Wet Tropics, Queensland, Australia, rainforest, climate change, biogeography, paleoecology, population genetics, distribution, diversity
Additional Information:	This book contains the edited and updated papers from a symposium held in Cairns, Australia, April 1998. Co-sponsored by the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Rainforest Ecology and Management and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
Date Deposited:	14 Sep 2007
FoR Codes:	05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0502 Environmental Science and Management > 050202 Conservation and Biodiversity @ 100%
SEO Codes:	96 ENVIRONMENT > 9603 Climate and Climate Change > 960399 Climate and Climate Change not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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