Quantifying and tracing marine biogeography over the Phanerozoic

• Applicant: Dr. Ádám Tibor Kocsis
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 316190068

Research of life’s biogeographic structure and its evolution are of key importance to the understanding of ecological processes and conservation efforts. From the marine realm, we have an increasing amount of data on species distributions, yet researchers outlining bioregions on a global scale have mostly neglected occurrences datasets as sources of information. A two-year research project started to address biogeographic partitioning in fossil and modern marine context and to assess five hypotheses on the evolution of biogeography.The project has been very successful. The R package ’icosa’ was published to generate isometric geographic grids. Partitioning methods based on network theory were found to be very effective in objectively outlining biogeographic structures. A study was submitted for publication that analyzed the biogeographic structure of modern oceans and its abiotic determinants, confirming the dominant role of temperature. Bioregions can also be traced through geological time, when information from multiple geological ages is assessed in a single network. With this approach, a second study demonstrated the association of mass extinctions with significant biogeographic changes in the benthic environment. There is also evidence that provinciality and continent configuration are closely linked, but further work is necessary for the robust assessment of this connection. A one-year research project about the evolution of biogeography is proposed here that will allow the continuation of the work in progress. Based on the present day distribution of species and bioregions, algorithmic modelling of past biogeography will establish the association between climate, continental configuration and provinciality. Subsequently, a detailed analysis of biogeographic units will be provided, with focus on their species richness, taxonomic turnover, endemicity, size and duration. During this phase, I will integrate the computer code of the partitioning methods into the R package ‘divDyn’. To conclude the project, the analysis of computer-generated models of species distributions will be performed, which will deepen the theoretical understanding of biogeographic structuring.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants