title: New directions in biogeography?
abstract: The deduction of biogeographic process from the study of its history is complicated by the fact that history is a singular thing. This singularity allows no estimation of the degree of determinism surrounding the realization of biogeographic processes, and consequently we know almost nothing about the generality of such deductions. Here we discuss a new approach, called 'experimental biogeography', that exploits computers to model faunal build-up repeatedly against a fixed vicariant background over ecological and evolutionary time scales. This new approach enables a biogeographer to be omniscient - to know both vicariant history and actual phylogeny. Moreover, history can be replayed repeatedly to accumulate a sample of multiple phylogenies and to estimate probability density functions for biogeographic variables. Roles of stochastic, historical and ecological processes in adaptive radiations can also be assessed. Experimental biogeography allows examination of the reliability of various methods of recovering historical patterns.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Zoology, Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK OX1 3PS.
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Haydon
authors.forename: B I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Crother
authors.forename: E R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Pianka