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Biogeography of Microscopic Organisms
Is Everything Small Everywhere?
Bringing together the viewpoints of leading experts in taxonomy, ecology and
biogeography of different taxa, this book synthesises discussion surrounding the
so-called ‘Everything is everywhere’ hypothesis. It addresses the processes that
generate spatial patterns of diversity and biogeography in organisms that can
potentially be cosmopolitan.
The contributors discuss questions such as: are microorganisms (e.g. prokaryotes, protists, algae, yeast and microscopic fungi, plants and animals) really cosmopolitan in their distribution? What are the biological properties that allow such
potential distribution? Are there processes that would limit their distribution? Are
microorganisms intrinsically different from macroscopic ones? What can microorganisms tell us about the generalities of biogeography? Can they be used for
experimental biogeography?
Written for graduate students and academic researchers, the book promotes a
more complete understanding of the spatial patterns and the general processes in
biogeography.
di e g o f on ta n e t o is a NERC Advanced Research Fellow at the Division of
Biology, Imperial College London, Ascot, UK. His research focuses on spatial patterns and processes in microscopic animals, with a particular interest in rotifers.
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The Systematics Association
Special Volume Series
series editor
David J. Gower
Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
The Systematics Association promotes all aspects of systematic biology by organising
conferences and workshops on key themes in systematics, running annual lecture
series, publishing books and a newsletter, and awarding grants in support of
systematics research. Membership of the Association is open globally to professionals
and amateurs with an interest in any branch of biology, including palaeobiology.
Members are entitled to attend conferences at discounted rates, to apply for grants
and to receive the newsletter and mailed information; they also receive a generous
discount on the purchase of all volumes produced by the Association.
The first of the Systematics Association’s publications The New Systematics (1940)
was a classic work edited by its then-president Sir Julian Huxley. Since then, more
than 70 volumes have been published, often in rapidly expanding areas of science
where a modern synthesis is required.
The Association encourages researchers to organise symposia that result in multiauthored volumes. In 1997 the Association organised the first of its international
Biennial Conferences. This and subsequent Biennial Conferences, which are
designed to provide for systematists of all kinds, included themed symposia that
resulted in further publications. The Association also publishes volumes that are
not specifically linked to meetings, and encourages new publications (including
textbooks) in a broad range of systematics topics.
More information about the Systematics Association and its publications can be
found at our website: www.systass.org.
Previous Systematics Association publications are listed after the index for this
volume.
Systematics Association Special Volumes published by Cambridge University Press:
78. Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics
Trevor R. Hodkinson, Michael B. Jones, Stephen Waldren and John A. N. Parnell
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Cambridge University Press
978-0-521-76670-8 - Biogeography of Microscopic Organisms: Is Everything Small Everywhere?
Edited by Diego Fontaneto
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The Systematics Association Special
Volume 
Biogeography of
Microscopic Organisms
Is Everything Small
Everywhere?
edited by
Diego Fontaneto
Imperial College London
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ca mbr idge uni v ersit y pr ess
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town,
Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521766708
© The Systematics Association 2011
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2011
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-521-76670-8 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is,
or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
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v
Contents
List of contributors
Preface
page vii
ix
Part I Theoretical framework
1 Why biogeography of microorganisms?
Diego Fontaneto and Juliet Brodie
2 Historical biogeography, microbial endemism and the role of
classification: everything is endemic
David M. Williams
3
11
Part II Prokaryotes
3 Biogeography of prokaryotes
Donnabella C. Lacap, Maggie C.Y. Lau and Stephen B. Pointing
4 Thermophilic bacteria in cool soils: metabolic activity and
mechanisms of dispersal
Roger Marchant, Ibrahim M. Banat and Andrea Franzetti
35
43
Part III Unicellular eukaryotes
5 Dispersal of protists: the role of cysts and human introductions
Wilhelm Foissner
6 Everything is everywhere: a twenty-first century de-/reconstruction
with respect to protists
David Bass and Jens Boenigk
7 Arcellinida testate amoebae (Amoebozoa: Arcellinida): model
of organisms for assessing microbial biogeography
Thierry J. Heger, Enrique Lara and Edward A.D. Mitchell
8 Everything is not everywhere: the distribution of cactophilic yeast
Philip F. Ganter
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88
111
130
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CONTENTS
Part IV Pluricellular eukaryotes
9 Coalescent analyses reveal contrasting patterns of intercontinental
gene flow in arctic-alpine and boreal-temperate fungi
József Geml
177
10 Biogeography and phylogeography of lichen fungi and their photobionts
Silke Werth
191
11 Biogeography of mosses and allies: does size matter?
Nagore G. Medina, Isabel Draper and Francisco Lara
209
12 Dispersal limitation or habitat quality – what shapes the distribution
ranges of ferns?
Hanno Schaefer
13 Ubiquity of microscopic animals? Evidence from the morphological
approach in species identification
Tom Artois, Diego Fontaneto, William D. Hummon, Sandra
J. McInnes, M. Antonio Todaro, Martin V. Sørensen and
Aldo Zullini
14 Molecular approach to micrometazoans. Are they here, there
and everywhere?
Noemi Guil
234
244
284
Part V Processes
15 Microbes as a test of biogeographic principles
David G. Jenkins, Kim A. Medley and Rima B. Franklin
309
16 A metacommunity perspective on the phylo- and biogeography
of small organisms
Luc De Meester
324
17 Geographic variation in the diversity of microbial communities: research
directions and prospects for experimental biogeography
Joaquin Hortal
335
Index
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Contributors
Tom A rtois Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
I br a h i m M . Ba n at School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine,
Northern Ireland, UK
Dav i d Ba s s Zoology Department, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
Je n s B oe n ig k General Botany, University Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany
Ju l i e t B rodi e Department of Botany, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
L uc D e M e e s t e r Laboratory of Aquatic Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
I s a be l D r a p e r Departamento de Biología (Botánica), Facultad de Ciencias,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
W i l h e l m Foi s s n e r FB Organismische Biologie, Universität Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
D i e g o Fon ta n e t o Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Swedish Museum of
Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden, and Division of Biology, Imperial College
London, Ascot, UK
R i m a B . F r a n k l i n Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University,
Richmond, VA, USA
A n dr e a F r a n z e t t i Department of Environmental Sciences, University of
Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy
P h i l i p F. G a n t e r Department of Biological Sciences, Tennessee State University,
Nashville, TN, USA
Jó z s e f G e m l National Herbarium of the Netherlands, Netherlands Centre for
Biodiversity Naturalis, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
Noe m i Gu i l Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, National Museum
of Natural History (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
T h i e r r y J. H e g e r WSL, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape
Research, Ecosystem Boundaries Research Unit, Wetlands Research Group,
Lausanne, Switzerland; Laboratory of Ecological Systems, École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Zoology
and Animal Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; and Biodiversity
Research Center, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
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LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Joaqu í n Hor ta l Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo
Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain, and Azorean Biodiversity
Group - CITA A, Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Azores,
Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Açores, Portugal
W i l l i a m D. Hu m mon Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, Athens,
OH, USA
Dav i d G . Je n k i n s Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando,
FL, USA
D on n a be l l a C . L ac a p School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong SAR, China
E n r iqu e L a r a Institute of Biology, Laboratory of Soil Biology, University of
Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
F r a nc i s c o L a r a Departamento de Biología (Botánica), Facultad de Ciencias,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
M ag g i e C .Y. L au School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong
Kong SAR, China
Ro ge r M a rc h a n t School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster, Coleraine,
Northern Ireland, UK
S a n dr a J. Mc I n n e s British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
N ag or e G . M e di n a Departamento de Biología (Botánica), Facultad de Ciencias,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
K i m A . M e dl e y Department of Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL,
USA
E dwa r d A . D. M i t c h e l l Institute of Biology, Laboratory of Soil Biology, University
of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
S t e p h e n B . P oi n t i ng School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong SAR, China
H a n no S c h a e f e r Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Imperial College London,
Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, UK, and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
M a r t i n V. S ør e ns e n Natural History Museum of Denmark, Zoological Museum,
Copenhagen, Denmark
M . A n t on io Toda ro Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Modena and Reggio
Emilia, Modena, Italy
S i l k e W e r t h Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, WSL Swiss Federal Research
Institute, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Dav i d M . W i l l i a m s Department of Botany, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
A l d o Zu l l i n i Dipartimento di Biotecnologie & Bioscienze, Università di MilanoBicocca, Milan, Italy
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Preface
This volume is derived from a symposium on ‘The importance of being small: does
size matter in biogeography?’ organised during the first BioSyst meeting, which
was held in Leiden in August 2009. The idea for the symposium arose during an
informal discussion at the Natural History Museum in London. Biogeography
is now a well-established science with its own methods and tools, and a strong
theoretical framework. Many journals and books are dedicated to biogeography,
and specific meetings are organised by the International Biogeography Society.
Nevertheless, most of the ideas in biogeography come from empirical evidence
from macroscopic organisms, whereas the spatial patterns of microscopic organisms have mostly been neglected.
The aim of this book is to establish the importance of microorganisms in
biogeography. In doing so, this book follows the stimulating discussion on the
so-called ‘Everything is everywhere’ hypothesis of the last decades. Currently,
enough empirical evidence is available on the biogeography and phylogeography
of many microscopic organisms and on larger organisms with microscopic dispersing stages; thus, this book brings together for the first time all this information
in a unifying framework, and discusses patterns, processes and consequences.
The coverage of the taxa is broad, spanning from prokaryotes to plants, fungi,
and animals; the approaches are rather different in the different chapters, and I
hope that readers will enjoy this book and find many inspirations for their own
research.
I am very grateful to the Systematics Association for the opportunity to organise the symposium in Leiden and especially to Juliet Brodie, Peter Olson, Dave
Roberts and Alan Warren for their support at an early stage of the organisation of
the meeting. Other people were very helpful during the meeting, and I am very
grateful to Peter Hovenkamp for his help in Leiden. As for any meeting, its success
was due to the high quality of the speakers, and I thank them all.
During the preparation of the book, I received strong support both from the
Systematics Association, William Baker, Richard Bateman and David Gower,
and from Cambridge University Press, Katrina Halliday, Dominic Lewis and
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PREFACE
Megan Waddington. The contributors made a great job in providing interesting,
stimulating and easily readable chapters on schedule, and I am very grateful to
them. They also provided valuable assistance during the reviewing process. Other
people read part of the book and provided comments and suggestions, and for that
I sincerely thank Tim Barraclough, Lars Hedenäs, Seraina Klopfstein, Petra Korall,
Marc-André Lachance, Ulrike Obertegger, Ibai Olariaga Ibarguren, Maureen
O’Malley, Albert Phillimore, Brett Riddle, Cuong Tang, Franco Verni, Martin
Westberg, Chris Wilson and others who prefer to remain anonymous.
Diego Fontaneto
Stockholm
Sweden
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