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Site Map / Index This page last modified: 7th January, 2008 ŠPaul Markwick 2000-2008 |
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Markwick, P.J., (2001) Integrating the records of palaeo-climate, -biogeography and biodiversity using Geographic Information Systems Lyell Meeting 2001 (Geological Society, London), London, UK. Abstract The distribution and diversity of life on Earth reflects the complex interplay of history and the contemporary environment: geography; climatology; oceanography; and life itself. Understanding this interplay, especially on a global-scale, requires a comprehensive understanding of all the factors involved and that in turn means large datasets. This is true whether examining the potential consequences of modern climate changes for ecosystems and biodiversity, or reconstructing the fossil record. The widespread availability of desktop-based computerized relational databases in the late 1980's provided a powerful tool for storing these large datasets, but the analysis of this information was still limited to traditional statistical and graphical techniques. The development of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) over the last 5-10 years has revolutionised relational databases by linking them to maps. It is through these map views (modern and palaeogeogeographic) that spatial datasets can be interrogated and analysed, with results that are immediately visible. Here I present examples drawn from my own research of Recent, Cenozoic and Mesozoic palaeobiogeography, biodiversity, palaeogeography and climatology to illustrate the applications of GIS to understanding the biosphere. This brings together global datasets of modern and fossil vertebrate and floral information (including physiological, and habit data), with observed and modelled climate and oceanographic results, lithological information, satellite observations and geographic evolution. The results from these studies emphasise the importance of environment in determining the biogeography of biodiversity, a relationship that can also be traced back through time. . |
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