Vietnam 2014
Biogeography of Vietnam
and Southeast Asia
BIO 3532-5532
May 2014
The Science of Biogeography
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Biogeography is the science that attempts to
document and understand spatial patterns of
biodiversity at any level.
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The study of the present and past distributions
of organisms and the processes that produce
recurring pattern in numbers and kinds of
living things.
Biogeographic Data
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Closely related species live close to each other
Genera seem to have wider distributions
Families have even wider distributions
Major parts of the world have characteristic
assemblages of herps
Some smaller places particularly weird
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Madagascar
Australia
New Zealand
What Produces a Distribution?
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Basic ecology of a group
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Recent climatic regimes
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Habitat choice
Density
Dispersal capability
Thousands of years
A few million years
Continental Drift
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Many millions of years
Biogeographic Hypotheses
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Animal distributions tell us about the past
Animals occupy all the areas they can
As habitats changes so do the animals
Animals have different dispersal abilities
Long term processes influence distributions
of ancient lineages
Only recent events influence distributions of
recent species
Some Biogeographic Foci
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Ecological biogeography
Historical biogeography
Island biogeography
Phylogeographic biogeography
Some Biogeographic Terms
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Continuous Distributions
Discontinuous Distributions
Dispersal
Vicariance
Endemic
Allochthonous
Autochthonous
What a biogeographer needs to
know:
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Basic biology: ecology, physiology, anatomy, development,
evolutionary history.
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Basic geography: locations of continents, mountain ranges,
deserts, lakes, major islands, archipelagoes, seas in past and
present. Past and present climatic regimes, oceanic currents,
tides.
Brief history of life on earth, continental drift, glaciation,
orogeny, (subduction leads to orogeny) sea level changes.
Biogeographic realms, past and present, community types,
associations.
Ecological Biogeography
Distributions of two (or three) spadefoot species
Ecological Biogeography
Distributions of two (or four) salamander species
Family Bufonidae
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48 genera and 558 species
Cosmopolitan except Australia/New Zealand
Family Bombinatoridae
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2 genera and 10 species
E. Europe and Asia
Family Megophryidae
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SE Asian family with 11 genera and 130
species
Related to European and North American
families
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Family
Microhylidae
69 genera and 489 species
SE North America, Neotropics, SE Asia, Africa,
Northern Australasia
Family Rhacophoridae
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14 genera and about 321 species
Tropical Africa and southern Asia to Japan
and Philippines
Family Rhacophoridae
Chirixalus
Philautus
Rhacophorus
Rhacophorus
Family Rhacophoridae
Chirixalus
Theloderma
Chirixalus
Polypedetes ?
Biogeographic Regions of the World
Land Masses in Modern World
Land Masses in late Cretaceous – 94 MYA
Land Areas of the Late Jurassic – 152 MYA
Land Areas of the Early Jurassic – 195 MYA
Land Areas of the Late Permian – 255 MYA
Breakup of Gondwanaland
Vietnam is located on the eastern margin of the
Indochinese peninsula and occupies about 331,688
square kilometers, of which about 25 % was under
cultivation in 1987.
It borders the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and
South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and
Cambodia.
The S-shaped country has a north-to-south distance
of 1,650 kilometers and is about 50 kilometers wide
at the narrowest point. With a coastline of 3,260
kilometers, excluding islands
Indochina
Geography of Vietnam
Hanoi
Hue
Saigon,
Ho Chi Minh
City
Physical Geography of Vietnam
Corridors allow movements
Physiography
Red River Delta
The delta of the Red is a flat,
triangular region of 15,000 square
kilometers, is smaller but more
intensely developed and more
densely populated than the Mekong
River Delta.
The ancestral home of the ethnic
Vietnamese, the delta accounted for
almost 70 % of the agriculture and
80 % of the industry of North
Vietnam before 1975.
Red River Delta
•The entire delta region, backed by the steep rises of the
forested highlands, is no more than three meters above sea
level, and much of it is one meter or less. The area is
subject to frequent flooding; at some places the high-water
mark of floods is fourteen meters above the surrounding
countryside.
•For centuries flood control has been an integral part of the
delta's culture and economy. Modeled on that of China's,
this ancient system has sustained a highly concentrated
population and has made double-cropping wet-rice
cultivation possible throughout about half the region.
Highlands
The highlands and mountain
plateaus in the north and
northwest are inhabited
mainly by tribal minority
groups.
The Giai Truong Son
(Annamite Range) originates
in the Tibetan and Yunnan
regions of southwest China
and forms Vietnam's border
with Laos and Cambodia.
Highlands
It terminates in the Mekong River Delta north of
Hồ Chí Minh City (formerly Saigon).
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These central mountains, which have several high
plateaus, are irregular in elevation and form. The
northern section is narrow and very rugged; the
country's highest peak, Fan Si Pan, rises to 3,142
meters in the extreme northwest.
Central Highlands
Within the southern portion of
Vietnam is a plateau known as the
Central Highlands (Tay Nguyen),
approximately 51,800 square
kilometers of rugged mountain
peaks, extensive forests, and rich
soil.
Comprising 5 relatively flat
plateaus of basalt soil
the highlands account for 16% of
the country's arable land and
22% of its total forested land.
Central Highlands
Before 1975, North Vietnam had maintained that
the Central Highlands and the Giai Truong Son
were strategic areas of paramount importance,
essential to the domination not only of South
Vietnam but also of the southern part of
Indochina.
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Since 1975, the highlands have provided an area
in which to relocate people from the densely
populated lowlands.
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Mekong River Delta
The Mekong delta, covering about
40,000 square kilometers, is a lowlevel plain not more than three
meters above sea level at any point
and criss-crossed by a maze of
canals and rivers.
So much sediment is carried by the
Mekong's various branches and
tributaries that the delta advances
sixty to eighty meters into the sea
every year.
Mekong River Delta
An official Vietnamese source estimates the
amount of sediment deposited annually to be
about 1 billion cubic meters, or nearly 13
times the amount deposited by the Red River.
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About 10,000 square kilometers of the delta
are under rice cultivation, making the area one
of the major rice-growing regions of the
world.
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