Hypothesis testing in biogeography

Often, biogeography is applied only as a narrative addition to phylogenetic studies and lacks scientific rigour. However, if research questions are framed as hypotheses, biogeographical scenarios become testable. In this review, we explain some problems with narrative biogeography and show how the u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Trends in ecology & evolution (Amsterdam) 2011-02, Vol.26 (2), p.66-72
Main Authors: Crisp, Michael D., Trewick, Steven A., Cook, Lyn G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Demography
Ecosystem
Fossils
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
Phylogeny
Phylogeography - methods
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Summary:Often, biogeography is applied only as a narrative addition to phylogenetic studies and lacks scientific rigour. However, if research questions are framed as hypotheses, biogeographical scenarios become testable. In this review, we explain some problems with narrative biogeography and show how the use of explicit hypotheses is changing understanding of how organisms came to be distributed as they are. Developing synergies between biogeography, ecology, molecular dating and palaeontology are providing novel data and hypothesis-testing opportunities. New approaches are challenging the classic ‘Gondwana’ paradigm and a more complicated history of the Southern Hemisphere is emerging, involving not only general drivers such as continental drift and niche conservatism, but also drowning and re-emergence of landmasses, biotic turnover and long-distance colonization.
ISSN:0169-5347
1872-8383
DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2010.11.005