Quite simply, Bio-geography is the study of the distribution of animals around the world and the reasons for this distribution. There are two sectors to bio-geography; historical and ecological.
Historical
This deals with the roots and evolution of species on a long term scale. Historical Bio-geography is furnished by fossil archives and from molecular biology to make a constructive image of the past relations of animals and the similarities between species. Tools used include cardiograms, a type of diagram. In this process, a taxonomic tree is made by displaying different species and how they are linked and then replacing the species name for the geographical location it is found. This helps scientists to conclude the effect of differing environments on the evolution of a species.
Ecological
This is concerned with the relations between species and with their surroundings, and how they develop and interact in the incidence of these variables. Like Darwin’s studies, ecological scientists research island communities to test hypotheses about the development of species. It studies the capacity of an area through the number of species that exist there. Something used by ecological biographers in the species richness equilibrium model. Where there is an uninhabited area of study called an ‘island’, due to the fact that it is surrounded by area that are very unlike it. The different species that are able to occupy this area are called the ‘species pool’. As the immigration rate of species coming into the area increase, the number in the species pool decrease. Thus as the area becomes more and more crowded, naturally the resources in this area then reduce, resulting in an increased extinction rate. It is predicted that a change in both immigration and extinction rate balance will move towards a an equilibrium state.
Historical
This deals with the roots and evolution of species on a long term scale. Historical Bio-geography is furnished by fossil archives and from molecular biology to make a constructive image of the past relations of animals and the similarities between species. Tools used include cardiograms, a type of diagram. In this process, a taxonomic tree is made by displaying different species and how they are linked and then replacing the species name for the geographical location it is found. This helps scientists to conclude the effect of differing environments on the evolution of a species.
Ecological
This is concerned with the relations between species and with their surroundings, and how they develop and interact in the incidence of these variables. Like Darwin’s studies, ecological scientists research island communities to test hypotheses about the development of species. It studies the capacity of an area through the number of species that exist there. Something used by ecological biographers in the species richness equilibrium model. Where there is an uninhabited area of study called an ‘island’, due to the fact that it is surrounded by area that are very unlike it. The different species that are able to occupy this area are called the ‘species pool’. As the immigration rate of species coming into the area increase, the number in the species pool decrease. Thus as the area becomes more and more crowded, naturally the resources in this area then reduce, resulting in an increased extinction rate. It is predicted that a change in both immigration and extinction rate balance will move towards a an equilibrium state.