Interpreting the biogeography of South America

摘要

The evolutionary origin of biological diversity and the causes of present-day species distribution patterns have long intrigued biogeographers. Most studies that have considered these issues in the Neotropics have tested alternative historical hypotheses (e.g. Hubert & Renno, 2006; Quijada-Mascare?as et al., 2007). These involve changes in dispersal barriers and dispersal routes as a result of changes in climate (as in the Pleistocene refuge hypothesis, which posits that rain forests were fragmented to refugia separated by savanna) or in geography (as in hypotheses proposing that the distributions of land and water have changed as a result of changes in sea level or river systems). Although previously it was common to think that the alternative explanations were mutually exclusive, recent studies recognize that several of them may have played a role in creating patterns of species distribution and diversity.