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Zoogeographical Regions ? (1 Viewer)

RockyRacoon

Well-known member
I got a few questions on these, firstly, I have seen different ones, used in different books. I usually use these ones:

Palearctic (Includes Greenland)
Afrotropical
Malagsy (Madagascar)
Indomalayan (AKA Oriental? South East Asia area)
Australasian (Aus, New Guinea + New Zealand + Others)*
Pacific (Islands)
Nearctic (North America)
Neotropical (South + Central America)
Antarctic

I have seen Iriyan Jaya split from New Guinea, the former being in the Indomalyan Region and the latter in the Austaliasian but I have also seen them both in the Australasian Region.

Question Two: Is there such thing as sub-zoogeographical regions, perhaps Western Palearctic being one. In Sibley's there are main 'sub-zoogeographical' regions in North American (Eastern, Western, Mexican, Pacific, Taiga and Arctic) and subsub ;) zoogeographical regions. (Florida, Florida Keys, GreatPlains, Rocky Mountains, Great Basin, South West, Aleutians ect. ect.) Were these used just as aid or are they used by Biologists.

:flowers:

Question Three: Can I either, get on the internet, or buy somewhere, a complete map of zoogeographical and subzoogeographical, subsubzoogeographical and if there are even more 'subs' regions?

Thanks! :h?:
 
First, zoological regions are rather artifical and arbitrary things, because animal fauna mixes freely wherever there are borders.

Normally you have Palearctic, Afrotropical, Oriental, Nearctic, Neotropical and Australian (which will irritate New Guineans and New Zealanders).

Sometimes treated as exceptions are: Antarctic, Madagascar, New Zealand and Wallacea (central Indonesian islands with mixed Oriental-Australian fauna).

I also met subregions, in Palearctic they were I think: tundra-taiga, Europe, Mediterranean, steppe/deserts, E.Asia and mountains of C/E Asia. But animals mix so freely that they are used rarely and flexibly. I suppose there might be even smaller subsubregions used in XIX century but I never met them.

For practical purposes borders are skewed freely, eg. Oriental Bird Club cares for all Indonesia including Irian Jaya with its bowerbirds and cassowaries.

hope this helps :)
 
As mentioned by Jurek, there are 6 main bioregions; Palearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Nearctic, Neotropical and Australian. They are limited as follows:

Palearctic: All of Europe, northern Africa, most of the Middle East and Asia roughly north of the Himalayas.

Ethiopian: Africa, except the far north. Also includes the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula and Madagascar (but see the following).

Oriental: Southern Asia incl. the Indian Peninsula (but see the following). Also includes the Greater Sundas (Borneo, Java & Sumatra). The border between this and the Australian region is located in the Wallacean region, but exact limits are not completely agreed upon. Today most follow Weber's Line where the Lesser Sundas (except the Tanimbar Is. in the far east) and Sulawesi are included in the Oriental region, while virtually everything east of that belongs in the Australian region. But do note that some prefer to follow the modified Wallace's Line, where Wallacea (incl. the Lesser Sundas & Sulawesi) and the Philippines are included in the Australian region. At a non-scientific level many still use Wallace's original line - as do the simple map I have linked to in the end of this post.

Australian: Australia, New Zealand and most of the Pacific. Borders with the Oriental bioregion are described above. Note that the islands of New Guinea (both Papua New Guinea and the western part of the island which belongs to Indonesia) *always* belong in the Australian bioregion, but is divided in half when looking at a political map (= Papua New Guinea belong to Australia, while West Papua belong to Asia). But politics and bioregions obviously don't follow each other...

Nearctic: North America, roughly north of central Mexico (further south is the Neotropical region). Note that Greenland normally is included in this rather than the Palearctic region.

Neotropical: South America, Central America (excl. parts of Mexico, as described above) and the West Indies.

Madagascar and the Indian Subcontinent are in a special situation. While they belong to the Ethiopian and the Oriental region respectively, they are considered sufficiently distinct to have received "sub-continental" recognition. Thus, the Malagasy subregion and the Indian subregion. Likewise, many prefer to place New Zealand in an additional subregion, rather than treating it as part of the Australian region.

Above are the regions most will meet in literature. However, biologists use far more complex regions and to a far smaller scale. All of the above mentioned regions can easily be divided into additional and smaller subregions, just by looking at the fauna and flora. Just take a single look at the Mediterranean region versus Scandinavia - yes, they're both placed in Palearctic region and are far closer to each other than to e.g. an area in the Oriental region. However, they are also sufficiently different from each to warrent additional recognition. Of course it should be mentioned that subdivision in the Paleartic region is far less complex than in e.g. the Neotropical region. As an example: The Amazon is a subregion in the Neotropical region. But you can easily divide the Amazon region into 6 smaller regions based on fauna and flora (these being the Napo aka Uppper Amazonian, the Madeira, the Tapajos, the Pará, the Guianan and the Upper Rio Negro region). Thus, bioregions are far less artificial than, say, the concept of species. Just take a single look at the bird species (or families when looking at the major regions) in one region and compare it to any other region. As already established these regions are based on similarities in fauna and flora, which in turn are based on physical factors. Possible isolating factors between specific regions are many and examples are major river, mountains, sea, a specific habitat type, temperature, etc., etc. However, time also play a significant role. A clear example of this is the Indian subcontinent with its rather unique status. The Indian subcontinent was an island for a long time before it collided with Asia (this collision leading to the Himalayas). Thus, it was isolated and the animals & plants had plenty of time to evolve in unique directions compared to mainland forms. As apparent in above these regions are not static. They change all the time, but generally far too slowly for us to notice.

First a simple map showing the major regions:

http://www.runet.edu/~swoodwar/CLASSES/GEOG235/zoogeog/zooprov.gif

For a more complex picture check some of the maps on this page:

http://www.unep-wcmc.org/index.html...ected_areas/world_heritage/wh_review.htm~main
 
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As mentioned by Jurek, there are 6 main bioregions; Palearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Nearctic, Neotropical and Australian. They are limited as follows:

Oriental: Southern Asia incl. the Indian Peninsula (but see the following). Also includes the Greater Sundas (Borneo, Java & Sumatra). The border between this and the Australian region is located in the Wallacean region, but exact limits are not completely agreed upon. Today most follow Weber's Line where the Lesser Sundas (except the Tanimbar Is. in the far east) and Sulawesi are included in the Oriental region, while virtually everything east of that belongs in the Australian region. But do note that some prefer to follow the modified Wallace's Line, where Wallacea (incl. the Lesser Sundas & Sulawesi) and the Philippines are included in the Australian region. At a non-scientific level many still use Wallace's original line - as do the simple map I have linked to in the end of this post.

According to Chinese zoologists, the border between Palearctic and Oriental Realm is as north as Qingling Mountain--Huaihe River,about 32°N-34°N。In the south side of the Qingling Mountain of central China, avifauna characterises in subtropical much more, for example, there exist Chinese Bamboo Partridge, Bulbus such as Collared Fichbill, Brown-breasted Bulbul, Mountain Bulbul, Black Bulbul, Babblers such as Hwamei, White-browed Laughingthruh,Rufous-necked Scimitar Babbler,Rufous-capped Babbler,Blue-winged Minla,Streak-throated Fulvetta,Red-billed Leiothrix,White-collared Yuhina, some more Asian subtropical like Gree Treepie, Nutmeg Munia and Gould's Sunbird. In the eastern China, the borders are not clear, for there is no high mountain or other large obstacle, many Palearctic birds travel across the Yangzte River, and some Oriental realm birds which usuall live in evergreen forest rarely move out to areas in the north side of Yangzte River--as a result, though it's divided into Oriental realm, but few subtropical birds are seen except in summer when many birds from southeast Asia come to breed.
 
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