Endemism

Endemism is the condition of a taxon being native to and naturally restricted to a particular geographic area. Its scale ranges from a single island to an entire continent.

Geographic range: The area in which a species or other taxon occurs. Endemism describes a taxon's range when it is confined to a defined area.
Geographic isolation: The separation of populations by physical barriers or distance that limits their exchange. Isolation restricts gene flow and can confine descendants to a particular region.
Biodiversity hotspot: A region with exceptional concentrations of endemic species and severe habitat loss. Hotspots use endemic plant richness alongside habitat loss to identify conservation priorities.
Cosmopolitan distribution: A distribution spanning much of the world across multiple regions. It contrasts with endemism's confinement to a particular geographic area.
Native species: A species occurring in a region through natural processes rather than human introduction. A taxon must be native to an area, not merely present there, to be endemic.
Allopatric speciation: The formation of new species when populations become geographically separated. It can produce species whose entire native ranges lie within separate regions.
Conservation biology: The science of protecting biodiversity and sustaining biological systems. Endemic taxa can face heightened extinction risk because their entire ranges are limited.
Native range: The geographic area a taxon occupies through natural processes, excluding introduced populations. Endemism concerns restriction within a native range, not the full spread of introductions.
Biogeography: The study of the geographic distribution of organisms through space and time. This field explains the distributions whose geographic limits define endemism.
Adaptive radiation: The diversification of an ancestral lineage into species adapted to different ecological niches. Radiations on isolated islands often generate multiple locally restricted species.

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