The conservation of this rich biodiversity requires the recognition of accelerating rates of anthropogenic change and the predictable redistribution of the growing human population. Human behavior in the next 100–200 years is pivotal

to the continued existence of this global biodiversity hotspot. The biogeographic theater Although the basic geographic features, continental Selleck LY411575 outline and mountains have been in place and relatively stable for the last 20 Myr, the region’s rivers, shorelines, hundreds of continental islands, and climates, have changed dramatically and repeatedly (Corlett 2009a). The earlier geological history of the region, JIB04 cost including the assembly of the >20 Gondwanan terranes by continental drift, are described elsewhere (Hutchison 1989; Hall 2001, 2002; Metcalfe et al. 2001; Metcalfe 2009). The following brief account of the region’s geomorphology, rivers, climates, and vegetation draws on reviews by Woodruff (2003a), Gupta (2005), and Corlett (2009a). Among the main features today are: the Indo-Malayan archipelago of 17,000 islands, including two of the largest islands in the world (Borneo, Sumatra), and the Philippines EPZ-6438 datasheet comprising another 7,100 islands. The topography includes the hilly regions

of peninsula Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo, where Mt. Kinabalu rises to 4,101 m, and many volcanically active islands, including Java and Bali. Ancient granite and limestone mountains rising to 2,189 m form the backbone of the Thai-Malay peninsula and, on the continent proper, there are major hilly tracts in Myanmar, northern Thailand, along the Lao-Vietnamese border (Annamite mountains), and in Cambodia (Cardamon mountains). Other major features include the Chao Phrya river valley that drains into the Gulf of Thailand at Bangkok, and the drier Khorat Plateau

of northeast Thailand, which drains east into the current Mekong river. The region’s largest geographic feature lies hidden today below sea level: the plains of the Sunda Shelf. The disappearance of the Sunda plains in the last 14 Kyr presents many biogeographers with a highly misleading view of the theater in which today’s patterns have developed. The history of this feature and the overall paleogeographic outline of Southeast Asia are closely related to sea levels so the history of the latter must be reviewed at the outset. During the first half of the Tertiary, when sea levels were higher than today’s, the Thai-Malay peninsula comprised an island chain with water gaps separating the pre-Tertiary mountains of continental Asia from those in peninsula Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. During much of the Miocene (23–5.3 Ma) and Pliocene (5.3–2.6 Ma) conditions were hot (3°C warmer), perhumid (wetter than today and covered with rainforest), and sea levels were higher (≥25 m relative to today’s level) (Haywood et al. 2009; Naish and Wilson 2009). Air temperatures began to decline 3.