Biogeography

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Biogeography is the study of the distributions of plants and animals over the surface of the Earth in both space and time. The spatial component of biogeography attempts to describe and explain the distributions of one or more species over the world. Biogeography may also try to elucidate the changing distributions of organisms over time, either in the short term or over geological time.

The political and economic importance of biogeography can be very great indeed. Species and ecosystem distributions need to be considered in making any land management or conservation decisions.

Biogeography has many modes. Biogeography can be purely descriptive describing the distributions of particular species or habitats (ecosystems). These species or ecosystems mappings are very important from a conservation and land management viewpoint and also provide basic biological information crucial to all of the natural sciences.

Historical biogeography, on the other hand, attempts to explain the current distributions of species and ecosystems (habitats) on the basis of historical patterns of ecological changes, climate changes, or vicariant events. (Vicariant events are the creation of major barriers to dispersal of organisms such as continental drift, mountain creation, the changes in drainage patterns,or major climate changes). These changes may have occurred in relatively short periods of time or stretch over long periods of geological time.

The terrestrial world is commonly divided into major biogeographical regions. The most used subdivision is the one shown in the figure below containing the regions; Nearctic, Neotropical, Palearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Australian, and Oceanic. The Antarctic is sometimes also included as a zone. The Nearctic and Palearctic are sometimes referred to together as the Holarctic. The area covered by Nearctica (Canada, United States, and Greenland) is completely contained in the Nearctic region (hence the name of our web site).

Other major biogeographical subdivisions have been proposed

The following subject pages are included under biogeography. Some of these subjects are also found elsewhere in Nearctica.

General Biogeography Links.

Biomes, Ecoregions, and Habitats.

Island Biogeography.

Gap Analysis (from Ecology - Biodiversity).

Lists and Catalogs of Species (from Ecology - Biodiversity).

Continental Drift (from Paleontology).

Paleoecology (from Paleontology).