Phylogeography of California examines the evolution of a variety of taxa—ancient and recent, native and migratory—to elucidate evolutionary events both major and minor that shaped the distribution, radiation, and speciation of the biota of California. The book also interprets evolutionary history in a geological context and reviews new and emerging phylogeographic patterns. Focusing on a region that is defined by physical and political boundaries, Kristina A. Schierenbeck provides a phylogeographic survey of California’s diverse flora and fauna according to their major organismal groups. Life history and ecological characteristics, which play prominent roles in the various outcomes for respective clades, are also considered throughout the work. Supporting scholars and researchers who study evolutionary diversification, the book analyzes research that helps assess one of the major challenges in phylogeographic studies: understanding changes in population structures shaped by geological and geographical processes. California is one of only twenty-five acknowledged biological hotspots worldwide, and the phylogeographic history of the state can be extrapolated to study other regions in western North America. Further consideration is given to implications for conservation, recommendations concerning the biogeographic provinces that roughly define the state of California, and predictions related to climate change.
Phylogeography of California An Introduction
About the Book
Reviews
"Schierenbeck manages to cover both the biological and the physical histories of California in one readable volume that thus provides an important and unprecedented overview of the state's evolutionary past." —John Avise, Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UC Irvine, and author of Phylogeography: The History and Formation of Species"This is a novel and compelling treatment of a whole new body of information that has not been reviewed in this way before. While it informs scholars in the fields of geography and biology about the origins of the very diverse and wonderful set of organisms found in [California]. . . , it could certainly be used in the classroom as well." —Peter Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden and author of Environment and Biology
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
PART I GEOLOGIC AND ORGANISMAL HISTORY
1. INTRODUCTION
2. HISTORICAL PROCESSES THAT SHAPED CALIFORNIA
3. THE CENOZOIC ERA: PALEOGENE AND NEOGENE PERIODS (65–2.6 Ma)
4. QUATERNARY GEOLOGIC AND CLIMATIC CHANGES
PART II PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS IN VARIOUS TAXA
5. CONIFERS
6. FLOWERING PLANTS
7. INSECTS
8. FISHES
9. AMPHIBIANS
10 REPTILES
11. BIRDS
12. MAMMALS
13. MARINE MAMMALS
PART III SUMMARY
14. CONSISTENT PHYLOGEOGRAPHIC PATTERNS ACROSS TAXA AND MAJOR EVOLUTIONARY EVENTS
15. CONSERVATION IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Bibliography