Biogeography: History

Abstract

Abstract Biogeography, the study of the geography of life, emerged as a recognizable science as plant and animal collections grew during the eighteenth‐century age of exploration. The foundation of biogeography, that geographically disjunct regions with similar environments have distinct plants and animals, appeared as Buffon's Law in 1761. While being further developed within both evolutionary and ecology frameworks by late nineteenth‐century naturalists, including Wallace, Sclater, and Darwin, biogeography then developed along the two often distinct and separate trajectories of historical (evolution, systematics, paleontology) and ecological (population, community, ecosystem) biogeography. A revitalization of biogeography occurred in the 1960s alongside acceptance of the plate tectonic model of continental drift, and development of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography. Biogeography currently integrates four persistent themes (biogeographic regionalization, historical reconstruction, turnover among areas and across gradients, and geographic variation within and among closely related species) within emerging subdisciplines including phylogeography, macroecology, and conservation biogeography.