300412 VO Plant Biogeography (2021W)

- Aims: Students know the breadth of biogeography, the branch of biological sciences that addresses the question, how and why biological diversity varies in space and time.

Content: This lecture covers the following topics: (i) environmental setting and basic biogeographic principles, Earth history and fundamental biogeographic processes (including dispersal, immigration, speciation, extinction, changing Earth); (ii) evolutionary history of lineages and biotas (incl. reconstructing the history of lineages and of biotas); (iii) ecological biogeography (island biogeography, areography, ecogeographic rules, diversity gradients); (iv) distribution patterns, Pleistocene biogeography (with focus on the Alps)

- Methods: lecture