7.9.

2014 Endemism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endemism 2/6
Endemic types or species are especially likely to develop on biologically isolated areas such as islands because
of their geographical isolation. This includes remote island groups, such as Hawaii, the Galpagos Islands, and
Socotra, biologically isolated but not island areas such as the highlands of Ethiopia, or large bodies of water like
Lake Baikal.
Endemics can easily become endangered or extinct if their restricted habitat changes, particularly but not only
due to human actions, including the introduction of new organisms. There were millions of both Bermuda petrels
and "Bermuda cedars" (actually junipers) in Bermuda when it was settled at the start of the seventeenth century.
By the end of the century, the petrels were thought extinct. Cedars, already ravaged by centuries of shipbuilding,
were driven nearly to extinction in the twentieth century by the introduction of a parasite. Bermuda petrels and
cedars, although not actually extinct, are very rare today, as are other species endemic to Bermuda.
Origin of the term precinctive
Precinctive seems to have been coined by eminent biogeographer and systematist David Sharp when he was
discussing the Hawaiian fauna.
[2]
He stated: I use the word precinctive in the sense of confined to the area
under discussion precinctive forms means those forms that are confined to the area specified. That
definition excludes artificial confinement of examples by humans in far-off botanical gardens or zoological parks.
Sharp coined the word precinctive because he objected to use of the word endemic for such use, writing that
I use the word precinctive in preference to endemic or peculiar both of which are in common use in the
sense of confined to the area under discussion. The word endemic has been objected to on the grounds that its
definition does not indicate geographical restriction and that it is actually used in medicine to signify constant, but
not necessarily exclusive presence in a locality.
Sharps criticism of use of the word endemic in the biogeographic sense was valid. When the word endemic
was first used in English (from French, and originally spelled endemique and given as the antonym of
epidemique
[3]
) it dealt with populations of human pathogens. Later the spelling was changed to endemick but
the subject still was epidemiology and the prevalence of pathogens, not geographic restriction.
[4]
Biogeography
is a discipline distinct from ecology.
[5]
The ecological use of endemic became expanded to plant pathogens
and plants and animals, and is exemplified by Southwood and Comins: The change from epidemic to endemic
level may occur because
[6]
and by Price When the effect of enemies is disrupted or environmental
conditions become particularly favorable for reproduction, the population escapes the stabilizing influence of
enemies and increases to epidemic proportions However, shortage of food and disease may lead to
massive mortality and low natality causing the population to crash to endemic levels.
[7]
In ecology, endemic
is the antonym of epidemic. It applies to populations of any kind of organism in which very high densities can
alternate with very low ones.
Most biologists ignored Sharps coining of the word precinctive, and continued thundering down the wrong
track in using the late 19th century use of endemic in a biogeographic sense instead of its original ecological
sense. The result is that there are two major uses of the word endemic: (1) its original ecological sense
(epidemiology and population dynamics, dating back to the early 17th century), and (2) its biogeographic sense
dating back to the late 19th century. A third meaning arose when some 20th century writers began to confuse
the term indigenous with the biogeographic concept of endemic.
Some of the subsequent uses of the word precinctive can be found in Sharp, D. and Scott, H. 1908,
[8]
Cockerell, T.D.A. 1914,
[9]
MacCaughey, V. 1916,
[10]
Bequaert, J. 1921
[11]
and 1940,
[12]
Gressitt, J.L.
1960,
[13]
Snelling, R.R. 1966,
[14]
Mackerras, I.M. 1970,
[15]
Liebherr, J.K. 1997,
[16]
Whitehead, D.R. and