Quaternary environmental change in equatorial regions with particular reference to vegetation history: A bibliography

It was thought for a long time that equatorial regions had remained virtually unchanged at least since the Tertiary period — it is only from the Late Tertiary that we can talk of the present disposition of land and sea about the equator. Our teaching has supposed that these regions were the hearth from which general spread to the remainder of the planet's surface by gradual adaptation and speciation. This warm, humid zone has been seen as a refuge for species unable to maintain temperature ranges in the face of stresses and fluctuations to north and south. The diversity of species in rain forest environments was assumed to reflect their essential stability. So indeed it may, but not in quite the manner supposed originally by ecologists. The variety of species present in the various regions of rain forest are greatly different, with African exhibiting a relatively poor list compared with South America. This, as it turns out, may well be a function of disturbance.