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A biotic province is a region where life (flora and fauna) is similar in terms of composition and origin, often due to geophysical barriers preventing species migration.

Faunal succession is the process by which fossil animal assemblages succeed one another vertically through a stratigraphic section.

The competitive exclusion principle asserts that two species competing for the same limited resource cannot coexist at constant population values if other ecological factors remain constant.

A keystone species is one that has a disproportionately large effect on its natural environment relative to its abundance.

A phylogeographic break is a geographical area where animal and plant populations are significantly differentiated from one another genetically.

Sympatric speciation is the process through which new species evolve from a single ancestral species while inhabiting the same geographic region.

Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species.

Allopatric speciation refers to the formation of new species in populations that are geographically isolated from one another.

A cosmopolitan distribution refers to species that occur across a wide geographical range that spans multiple continents or global regions.

Invasive species are organisms that are not native to a specific location and have a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health.

Continental islands are formed by the lifting or separation of land from continents while oceanic islands arise from volcanic activity or coral growth on the ocean floor.

An endemic species is one that is found only in a specific geographic location, such as an island, nation, continent, or other defined zone.

An ecological niche is the role and position a species has in its environment; how it meets its needs for food and shelter, how it survives, and how it reproduces.

Wallace's Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by Alfred Russel Wallace that separates the ecozones of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia with mixtures of both faunas.

Neoendemism refers to species that have recently arisen, such as through speciation or evolutionary radiation, while paleoendemism refers to species that were once widespread but are now restricted to a smaller area.

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from humans.

An ecotone is a transition area between two biomes, where two communities meet and integrate. It often has greater species diversity and density than the neighboring communities.

Ecological succession is the observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time.

Biotic interchange is the exchange of species between different biogeographic regions, often following the formation of a land connection such as a land bridge.

Island biogeography is a field within biogeography that examines the factors that affect the species composition and richness on islands.

A biogeographic realm or ecozone is the largest biogeographically distinct division of the Earth's land surface, based on the historical patterns of the distribution of plants, animals, and other life forms.

Biogeographic barriers are physical features that limit the distribution and dispersal of organisms, often leading to differences in species composition across the barrier.

A floristic region is a geographical area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species, independent of its fauna.

The theory of island biogeography proposes that the number of species found on an undisturbed island is determined by immigration and extinction rates, which are affected by the size of the island and its distance from the mainland.

Adaptive radiation is the evolution of an animal or plant group into a wide variety of types adapted to specialized modes of life, usually after a mass extinction, environmental change, or colonization of new territory.

The species-area relationship is a well-established law within island biogeography, stating that a larger area will host a bigger number of total species.

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time.

Range expansion refers to the spread of a species into new territories.

Vicariance is the geographical separation of a population, typically by a physical barrier such as a mountain range or river, resulting in a pair of closely related species.