Download Botany 422: Plant Geography - Suggested Topics for Term Papers and more Papers Geography in PDF only on Docsity! Plant Geography — Botany 422 2009 Suggested Topics for Term Papers Use the library system's literature search bases (e.g., Web of Knowledge) to find appropriate references. Some references might be provided in the lecture handouts on many of these topics. WORLD VEGETATION TYPES AND THEIR CLIMATIC ADAPTATION Convergence in life forms in similar vegetation but different regions; different flora many possibilities! (giant rosette tree, bottle trees, cushion plants, very big trees of temperate rainforests, mangrove habit) - need to bring in systematic relationships Drip tips in tropical rain forests Biogeography of deserts Edaphic factors in plant endemism — serpentine, etc. Biogeography of carnivorous plants Global climate change and plant distributions (e.g., beech) Mediterranean sclerophyll flora — age and relationships HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY Defining “areas of endemism” New cladistic/biogeographic analytical approaches Wallace's line — What is its significance for plants? The Glossopteris flora and plate tectonics Nothofagus — Historical biogeography of the southern beeches The greening and browning of Australia — plate tectonics and biogeography. Historical biogeography of the Indian subcontinent — the last 100 million years. Historical biogeography of Madagascar — the last 100 million years. The fossil and modern distribution of relictual taxa. Choose a genus (e.g., Metasequoia, Sequoiadendron, Ginkgo, Liriodendron, Nypa). Tree species diversity in Europe and North America: Is the Ice Age to blame for Europe's botanical poverty? Phylogeography and the identification of Eurasian ice age “refugia” Coastal and alpine Pleistocene refugia in the Pacific Northwest — effects on patterns of plant endemism, distribution, population structure The refugium theory — hypotheses and tests in South America The refugium theory — hypotheses and tests in Africa Plants as evidence for pre-Columbian contacts between the Old and New Worlds (e.g., cotton, sweet potato) DISPERSAL BIOLOGY Seed dispersal by fish in the Amazon Basin Baker's rule and island colonization Types of dispersal events to the Hawaiian Islands Recent long distance inter-continental dispersal between tropical forests Recent long distance inter-continental dispersal between deserts BIOGEOGRAPHY OF ISLANDS Krakatau and recolonization of plants and animals Recent tests of the “Theory of Island Biogeography” Lakes as islands - insights from aquatic plants The relationships and origins of the tepui (Guayana Highland) flora The relationships and origins of the Hawaiian floras (or pick a specific group) The relationships and origins of the Australian flora today The relationships and origins of the Malagasy (Madagascar) flora today Relationships, origins and uniqueness of New Zeland's flora today Relationships, origins and uniqueness of New Guinea's flora Relationships, origins and uniqueness of New Caledonia's flora Primitive angiosperms and Pacific islands Adaptive radiation on islands (pick a group from Hawaii, Canary Islands, etc.) FLORISTICS AND DISJUNCTIONS
