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More often than not, when people think of a neotropical forest,
what comes to mind is a rain forest, rather than a dry forest. Just
as typically, when they imagine a savanna, they visualize the
African plains, rather than those dry woodlands and grasslands
found in the Neotropics. These same preconceptions can be found
among scientists, as these neotropical biomes receive nowhere near
the attention they should - in terms of both research and
conservation -considering the amount of land they encompass and the
diversity of vegetation they contain. Neotropical Savannas and Dry
Forests: Plant Diversity, Biogeography, and Conservation provides
an engaging synthesis of information on the plant diversity and
geography, as well as the conservation status, of these
species-rich areas. This impressive compilation is the result of a
plant diversity symposium that took place during an international
conference on tropical savannas and seasonally dry forests held in
2003. Fifty leading scientists, representing a variety of
disciplines have contributed to the chapters of this book in an
effort to address three questions: What are the patterns of
diversity, species-richness and endemism of the floras of
neotropical seasonally dry forest and savannas? How and why did
this endemism and diversity arise? Are these ecosystems adequately
protected and, if not, which areas should be elevated into
priorities for conservation, and how can this be best achieved?
This work is the first extensive compilation of the patterns of
plant biodiversity in these neotropical ecosystems. The overview
also provides a summary of what is known of their evolutionary
history, including an examination of the links to the development
of analogous vegetation in Africa. In contrast to previously
published titles that emphasize ecology and physiology, this work
focuses on plant biodiversity and reviews molecular phylogenetic
and molecular population genetic approache
Systematists, comparative biologists, taxonomists and evolutionary biologists all concern themselves with the evolutionary relationships between animals and plants. Homology is the principle underlying these disciplines. When looking at groups of organisms, shared positional similarities (homologues) provide the raw data from which hypotheses of common ancestry (homology) may be suggested. In order to explore the relationship between homologues (characters) and particular hypotheses of common ancestry, complex matrices are devised, where homologues are coded, allowing theories of homology to be developed and tested. Practically nothing has been written about this matrix-building process and yet it is of fundamental importance to our understanding of diversity and evolutionary history. This book fills the gap by discussing the different ways observations are coded and the consequences for the resulting hypotheses. It takes a pragmatic approach and uses real case studies as well as theoretical examples to offer practical solutions and stimulate thinking.
More often than not, when people think of a neotropical forest,
what comes to mind is a rain forest, rather than a dry forest. Just
as typically, when they imagine a savanna, they visualize the
African plains, rather than those dry woodlands and grasslands
found in the Neotropics. These same preconceptions can be found
among scientists, as these neotropical biomes receive nowhere near
the attention they should - in terms of both research and
conservation -considering the amount of land they encompass and the
diversity of vegetation they contain. Neotropical Savannas and Dry
Forests: Plant Diversity, Biogeography, and Conservation provides
an engaging synthesis of information on the plant diversity and
geography, as well as the conservation status, of these
species-rich areas. This impressive compilation is the result of a
plant diversity symposium that took place during an international
conference on tropical savannas and seasonally dry forests held in
2003. Fifty leading scientists, representing a variety of
disciplines have contributed to the chapters of this book in an
effort to address three questions: What are the patterns of
diversity, species-richness and endemism of the floras of
neotropical seasonally dry forest and savannas? How and why did
this endemism and diversity arise? Are these ecosystems adequately
protected and, if not, which areas should be elevated into
priorities for conservation, and how can this be best achieved?
This work is the first extensive compilation of the patterns of
plant biodiversity in these neotropical ecosystems. The overview
also provides a summary of what is known of their evolutionary
history, including an examination of the links to the development
of analogous vegetation in Africa. In contrast to previously
published titles that emphasize ecology and physiology, this work
focuses on plant biodiversity and reviews molecular phylogenetic
and molecular population genetic approache
Systematists, comparative biologists, taxonomists and evolutionary
biologists all concern themselves with the evolutionary
relationships between animals and plants. Homology is the principle
underlying these disciplines. When looking at groups of organisms,
shared positional similarities (homologues) provide the raw data
from which hypotheses of common ancestry (homology) may be
suggested. In order to explore the relationship between homologues
(characters) and particular hypotheses of common ancestry, complex
matrices are devised, where homologues are coded, allowing theories
of homology to be developed and tested. Practically nothing has
been written about this matrix-building process and yet it is of
fundamental importance to our understanding of diversity and
evolutionary history. This book fills the gap by discussing the
different ways observations are coded and the consequences for the
resulting hypotheses. It takes a pragmatic approach and uses case
studies as well as theoretical examples to offer practical
solutions.
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