Does Macroecology come to age?
David Nogués-Bravo
Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen.
What determines species diversity has long fascinated biogeographers and ecologists since Wallace and Darwin. Macroecology has been intensively describing large-scale biological patterns with the promise that they can be explained by a mechanistic evaluation of processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales. Yet, the forces driving the spatial distribution of biodiversity remains little understood. I will present recent advances in Macroecological research about drivers of biodiversity spatial patterns, including lessons from past biodiversity dynamics. I will also illustrate promising new research venues to link Eco-physiology, Population Biology and Macroecology for better understanding the determinants of species geographical ranges and emergent properties as community structure and species richness. Finally, I will highlight why the promise of Macroecology remains unfulfilled. First, there is a general failure of ecological theory to deal adequately with geographical scale. Second, documenting mechanisms and testing their effects on emerging large-scale patterns across the whole hierarchy of scales has been only modest Third, the widespread use of correlative approaches and the issue of ad-hoc explanations.
David Nogués-Bravo
Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen.
What determines species diversity has long fascinated biogeographers and ecologists since Wallace and Darwin. Macroecology has been intensively describing large-scale biological patterns with the promise that they can be explained by a mechanistic evaluation of processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales. Yet, the forces driving the spatial distribution of biodiversity remains little understood. I will present recent advances in Macroecological research about drivers of biodiversity spatial patterns, including lessons from past biodiversity dynamics. I will also illustrate promising new research venues to link Eco-physiology, Population Biology and Macroecology for better understanding the determinants of species geographical ranges and emergent properties as community structure and species richness. Finally, I will highlight why the promise of Macroecology remains unfulfilled. First, there is a general failure of ecological theory to deal adequately with geographical scale. Second, documenting mechanisms and testing their effects on emerging large-scale patterns across the whole hierarchy of scales has been only modest Third, the widespread use of correlative approaches and the issue of ad-hoc explanations.