Geodispersal

In biogeography, geodispersal is the erosion of barriers to gene flow and biological dispersal (Lieberman, 2005.; Albert and Crampton, 2010.). Geodispersal differs from vicariance, which reduces gene flow through the creation of geographic barriers. In geodispersal, the geographical ranges of individual taxa, or of whole biotas, are merged by erosion of a physical barrier to gene flow or dispersal. Multiple related geodispersal and vicariance events can be mutually responsible for differences among populations. As these geographic barriers break down, organisms of the secluded ecosystems can interact, allowing gene flow between previously separated species, creating more biological variation within a region.

A well documented example of geodispersal in between continental ecosystems was the Great American Biotic Interchange (GABI) between the terrestrial faunas and floras of North America and South America, that followed the formation of the Isthmus of Panama about 3 million years ago. Between 69 and 47 million years ago, the Thulean Land Bridge facilitated gene flow by allowing bees from the Old World to travel to the New World, an example of geodispersal from the Old World to the New World. Another example was the formation of the modern Amazon River Basin about 10 million years ago, which involved the merging of previously isolated Neotropical fish faunas to form what is now the most species-rich continental aquatic ecosystem on Earth (Oberdorff et al., 2011).

References

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2. (2010). "The Geography and Ecology of Diversification in Neotropical Freshwaters". Nature Education Knowledge.
3. (October 2013). "Out of Africa: Miocene Dispersal, Vicariance, and Extinction within Hyacinthaceae Subfamily Urgineoideae: Dispersals in Urgineoideae". Journal of Integrative Plant Biology.
4. (8 March 2011). "Historical Biogeography of Neotropical Freshwater Fishes". University of California Press.
5. (2011). "Aquatic Biodiversity in the Amazon: Habitat Specialization and Geographic Isolation Promote Species Richness". Animals.
6. (2015). "Terrestrial fishes: rivers are barriers to gene flow in annual fishes from the African savanna". Journal of Biogeography.
7. (2014). "Phylogenetic position of the bee genera Ancyla and Tarsalia (Hymenoptera: Apidae): A remarkable base compositional bias and an early Paleogene geodispersal from North America to the Old World". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
8. (5 January 2010). "Amazonia, Landscape and Species Evolution: A Look into the Past". Wiley.
9. (2011). "Global and Regional Patterns in Riverine Fish Species Richness: A Review". International Journal of Ecology.