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CHAPTER 1
AN INTRODUCTION

In opening this text, you probably have three basic questions: What exactly is bio-
geography? Why should I bother studying it? How will this book help me under-
stand biogeography? Lets start with a simple answer to the first question.
Biogeography is the study of the past and present geographic distributions of
plants and animals and other organisms.1 Of course, there is much more to it than
that. We will explore this question further and expand on this definition
presently, but first let us consider why you might want to study biogeography.
More than most sciences, biogeography helps us to understand and appreci-
ate the living environment that we experience every single day. Biogeography
helps us answer questions such as how the great diversity of life that we experi-
ence today arose, where the modern human species came from, and what we can
do to preserve the natural environment in the face of increasing human popula-
tion growth and environmental change. How does answering such questions
directly affect you? You cannot set foot outside your door without seeing plants
that are native to your area. Many of the plants you see are exotic species that
have been introduced by humans. You cannot escape hearing the calls of wild
birds, some of which are native and some of which have been introduced. Even if
you do not know the scientific names of the plants and animals near your home,
you are familiar with the way they look and sound. You must have wondered how
this diversity of life around you arose and specifically where all of these different
plants and animals that live near you originated.
If you have ventured far from your home, perhaps visiting another state,
province, or country, you have undoubtedly noticed differences in the vegetation
and animal life you encountered. For example, during the winter millions of peo-
ple travel from the northeastern United States and Canada to enjoy the sunshine
and palm-lined beaches of southern Florida. The green vegetation of Florida con-
trasts greatly with the cold and leafless winter forests of the Northeast. Many ani-
mals found in Florida, such as alligators, are not found in the northeastern United
States or in Canada. Why are alligators and most other plants and animals found
in southern Florida not found in the Northeast? The obvious answer might be
that these plants and animals require the warm and humid environment of
Florida to survive. However, many plant and animal species from Florida are also
absent from the other warm tropical and subtropical areas of the earth. Travel to
South America, West Africa, Southeast Asia, or northeastern Australia and you
will see palm trees and many interesting animals, including relatives of alligators
such as crocodiles, but not a single native alligator (Fig. 1.1). Surprisingly, how-
ever, you will find native alligators in southern China. Why are certain plant and
animals species limited to relatively small areas of the earth? Why are other types

1 Throughout the text key terms and concepts will appear in bold lettering. Short definitions for these
terms and concepts can be found at the end of the chapters.

1
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2 CHAPTER 1 AN INTRODUCTION

Alligator
Alligator
sinensis
mississipiensis
Mississipiensis

FIGURE 1.1 The world distribution of alligator species (Alligator mississipiensis and
Alligator sinensis). Understanding why alligators are found only in North America and
China is a classic biogeographical question. Alligators are found in warm subtropical
regions because they cannot tolerate prolonged exposure to cold and freezing tempera-
tures. In the geologic past, Europe, Asia, and North America were joined together in one
large continent that experienced relatively warm climates. Therefore the geographic range
of the ancestors of modern alligators was much larger than it is today. Over time, as conti-
nents shifted, climate changed, and alligators faced competition from crocodiles and
caimans, the geographic range of alligators became fragmented and small.

of organisms widely distributed? Why cant you grow many of the plants found in
Florida in a garden in New York?
The role of biogeography is to study such geographic differences in vegeta-
tion and wildlife and seek to explain them. Biogeography can tell us why North
American alligators (Alligator mississipiensis) are found only in warm, moist areas
such as Florida and adjacent states. Biogeography can also help us to understand
why alligators are also found in China (Alligator sinensis), and not in tropical
regions of Africa and Australia. In studying biogeography, you will come to under-
stand that a combination of geographical, environmental, and historical factors led
to the great diversity of plant and animal life. In studying biogeography, you can
develop a much greater awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the won-
derful diversity of plant and animal life that you encounter every single day.
The study of biogeography also helps us to appreciate the development
and history of our own species. We do not stand as far apart from the natural
world as we might think. Our development, both biologically and culturally, is a
product of geography, the earths physical environment, and interactions with
other organisms. The evolution and spread of humans around the world is one of
the great stories of biogeography. At present, humans play an increasingly
greater role in changing the worlds environments and have a significant impact
on the lives of plants and animals with which they share the earth. We have
helped some species spread throughout the world while driving others from
much of their former habitat. Some plants and animals owe their existence to
human activity. Sadly, many more species owe their extinction to us. Since our
existence depends on our relationships with the other species of the earth, our
future will ultimately be determined by how we treat them. Biogeography helps
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AN INTRODUCTION 3

us understand where living organisms, including humans, have come from and
where we and earths other inhabitants are potentially headed.
The ability of humans to alter the environment and affect the survival of
plants and animals bestows a great deal of responsibility upon us. We are respon-
sible for making sure our actions cause as little damage as possible to the natural
environment. In this effort we will always face tradeoffs between the needs of
people for food, resources, living space, and recreational areas, and the preserva-
tion and conservation of nature. In some cases, we can alter our activities to
lessen the damage we cause. In other instances, we might try to restore damaged
areas to a semblance of their natural state. In these enterprises, biogeography can
provide important guidance. By examining the long-term histories of plant and
animal communities, biogeographers provide information on how humans have
altered the environment. In studying the natural distributions of plants and ani-
mals, biogeographers can help preserve nature. Biogeography provides impor-
tant guidance on how we are affecting the environment and what actions we can
take to conserve resources and preserve natural environments.
Let us now return to defining biogeography. In studying the present and
past distributions of life, biogeographers have two basic tasks: description and
explanation. Describing where a plant or animal species occurs today is the easi-
est part, and yet this task remains incomplete for vast numbers of plants and ani-
mals. So far, a little less than 2 million living species of plants, animals, and other
organisms have been identified. It is thought that an additional 4 to over 20 mil-
lion remain undiscovered by modern science. It is even more difficult to recon-
struct the past distributions of organisms because we must rely on fossil records
that are often incomplete and difficult to interpret. Explaining exactly how pres-
ent and past distributions are controlled by the complex geographic, environ-
mental, and historical factors that affect all organisms presents the greatest
challenge. In order to understand how the physical and biological environment
controls the distribution of plants and animals today, biogeographers must be
familiar with concepts and techniques in physiology, anatomy, ecology, pedology
(the study of soils), climatology, limnology (the study of lakes), and oceanogra-
phy. In order to study how plants and animals were distributed in the past, bio-
geographers must know some basic geology, paleontology, and evolutionary
biology. Since biogeography requires knowledge from a wide variety of other dis-
ciplines, it is called a synthetic science. The interests of the biogeographer blend
and overlap with the interests of the ecologist, the evolutionary biologist, and the
paleontologist to such an extent as to make the identification of firm boundaries
between biogeography and these disciplines difficult. Indeed, it might be argued
that from a life sciences perspective, all of these disciplines are subfields of bio-
geography. Given the synthetic nature of the field, it is not surprising that biogeo-
graphers can be found working in many different university departments,
including geography, biology, geology, paleontology, and anthropology. Biogeog-
raphers can also be found working in park services, forestry services, environ-
mental services, conservation groups, and private consulting firms.
Clearly, biogeography encompasses a huge area of the natural sciences.
One way in which biogeographers tackle the complexity of their subject is to
break it down into different subdisciplines. Phytogeographers study the present
and past distributions of plants. Zoogeographers examine the present and past
distributions of animals. The biogeographic study of the modern relationships
between organisms and the environment is called ecological biogeography.
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4 CHAPTER 1 AN INTRODUCTION

Some biogeographers concentrate on studying past distributions and the evolu-

tion of life. This line of inquiry is called historical biogeography. The field of ana-
lytical biogeography is concerned with developing general rules that explain
how geography affects the evolution and distribution of plants and animals and
how past distributions and evolutionary history are reflected in modern distribu-
tions. The application of the lessons learned from ecological, historical, and ana-
lytical biogeography, including the protection or restoration of the natural
environment, is called conservation biogeography.
So, what are the aims of this textbook, and how can it help you understand
this fascinating and diverse field? The book is written to provide you with a solid
introduction to the field of biogeography. It does not assume extensive back-
ground knowledge of biology, geography, or geology. There are, however, funda-
mental terms and concepts from these three fields that all biogeographers must
know, and so they are outlined in this book. In Chapter 2 you will be introduced to
some important basics of biology and physical geography including climatology,
oceanography, and limnology. Later, in Chapter 6, we will explore some important
concepts from geology regarding the history of the earth. Throughout the text,
you will also be introduced to widely applied concepts from ecology and evolu-
tionary biology. These concepts will be explained in detail, and their importance
to biogeography will be highlighted.
In recognition of the ecological, historical, and analytical facets of biogeog-
raphy, the book is divided into three major sections. The first section, called Space
and Life, is concerned with ecological biogeography. In these chapters we will
examine how present physical and biological conditions affect organisms and their
distributions. Chapter 3 describes how physical conditions affect organisms and
control their geographic distributions. In Chapter 4 we will look at the interactions
that occur between different organisms and discuss how these biological factors
can control geographic distributions. In Chapter 5 we will examine how distur-
bances such as fires or floods impact ecosystems and influence the geographic dis-
tribution of organisms. The final chapter of this section, Chapter 6, discusses how
plants and animals often occur together in communities, and how the earth can be
subdivided into biogeographic zones based on vegetation communities.
The second section of the book concerns historical biogeography and is
entitled Time and Life. In Chapter 7 we will learn a little basic geology and dis-
cover how the physical geography of the earth has changed over the last 500 mil-
lion years. We will also explore how the earths climate has undergone periodic
changes. We will pay special attention to the shifts between glacial and nonglacial
conditions that have occurred over the past 2 million years. We will conclude the
chapter with a consideration of how human activity is now changing the climate
of the planet. Chapter 8 will delve into how organisms change their distributions
in response to geographic and environmental conditions. In Chapter 9 we will
explore how geography impacts processes and patterns of evolution and extinc-
tion. In Chapter 10, we will consider how the earth can be divided into different
biogeographic regions based on the species that occur together and the evolu-
tionary history of plants and animals. We will focus on biogeography and the
evolution of humans in Chapter 11 and examine our impact on other species in
Chapter 12.
The final section of the book is called Biogeography: Theory and Practice.
In these chapters, we examine the analytical and conservation aspect of biogeog-
raphy. In Chapter 13, we will focus on some different common geographic distri-
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KEY WORDS AND TERMS 5

butions and their causes. We will explore how biogeographical patterns can be
used to trace the evolutionary history of modern plant and animal species. Chap-
ter 14 describes biogeographic theories that explain global variations in the
diversity of plant and animal species on continents, in oceans, and on islands. In
the concluding chapter of the book, we will explore how biogeography is being
applied to problems of conservation.
One of the greatest attractions of biogeography comes from the wonderful
variety of life and the fantastic adaptations that allow organisms to live in envi-
ronments ranging from the coldest depths of the ocean to the hot sands of the
Sahara Desert. Biogeography is a science concerned with life, and it should be
lively! In this book you will be introduced to many examples of fantastic and
wonderful plants and animals. These organisms, and the many interesting envi-
ronments and communities in which they live, will be used to illustrate the con-
cepts and theories of biogeography. We will also examine many examples of how
biogeography has impacted people and how human activity has affected other
organisms. These examples should make your studies more enjoyable and allow
you to translate your knowledge of biogeography to the real world. In the end,
when you travel across the world, walk down your own street, or look at yourself
in the mirror, you will realize that every single plant, animal, and person you
encounter is a result of, and contributor to, the biogeographical story of life.

KEY WORDS AND TERMS

Analytical biogeography Ecological biogeography Phytogeography
Biogeography Historical biogeography Zoogeography
Conservation biogeography