McDonald-Spicer, Christiana2020-10-192020-10-19b71499787http://hdl.handle.net/1885/212587Understanding what has driven the distribution of biodiversity across the world is a central question in biogeography. One possible explanation is the persistence of organisms in refugia, areas of stability that allow taxa to persist during times of unfavourable climate, with the potential to expand from there in later times. In this dissertation, I explore measures of refugia and stability, and the contribution of refugia to the diversity patterns of lizards in the Australian Monsoonal Tropics. Stability and refugia are widely used concepts in macroecology and biogeography, but their use is not always clearly defined. In Chapter 1 I present a conceptual framework for thinking through concepts of stability, focusing on five key questions. Thinking through these questions provides a clear understanding of any definition of stability, assisting with comparing studies and interpreting the biological implications of their results. In Chapter 2 I empirically test the importance of using this framework, comparing four different measures of stability to see which best predicts reptile diversity in the Australian Monsoonal Tropics. I find large differences in the performances of the stability measures, demonstrating the importance of carefully considering the biological meaning of stability measures before including them in studies. Chapter 3 investigates drivers of diversity patterns across the Australian Monsoonal Tropics, including stability as well as current climate, geology and disturbance. Finally, in the fourth chapter I explore the impact of refugia on the biogeography of lizards in the Kimberley region. I test refugia across different spatial scales (fine and coarse grain) and temporal scales (Holocene and Pleistocene) to examine the drivers of diversity patterns in the region.en-AU202010.25911/5f9698062b385