Biogeography

1600–1850: The Age of Reason

Early studies of organisms’ geographic distributions were focused on descriptive studies with historical explorations. These scientists focused on documenting spatial patterns of organisms, emphasizing on the effects of climate, latitude, and altitude. Comte de Buffon (1707–1788), also known as Georges-Louis Leclerc, determined that distant regions with similar climate and similar-appearing vegetation have different animal species. This is now referred to as Buffon's Law. He is also the author of Histoire Naturelle, a 44-volume natural history encyclopedia. Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) studied the plants and animals spread from Mount Ararat in Turkey to explore the idea of the biblical flood. As a result of documenting elevational zones of Ararat, he came up with the idea of biomes defined as major ecological communities. In addition, Carl Linnaeus is considered the father of the science of taxonomy, which is the science of classification.

This time period is also known as a great age for exploration. Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–1798) was the naturalist on James Cook's second Pacific voyage in 1778. He advanced biogeography by creating global biotic regions for plants. Forster noted the higher-species diversity in the tropics, as well as species diversity being correlated with island size. Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) created a botanical geography that was foundational to the field of biogeography. He determined that plant vegetation types are strongly correlated with local climate to create latitudinal belts of vegetation. Moreover, he [Page 209]developed elevational vegetation zones for the Andes in South America.

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