Origins of Biogeography

Ebach, Malte C.

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9999-7

Cited by 43 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…The term biogeography was coined in the late 19th century, stemming from studies of terrestrial plants and animals (Ebach, ). Studies of biogeography have typically focused on terrestrial ecosystems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sampling bias misrepresents the biogeographical significance of constitutive mixotrophs across global oceans

Leles

Mitra

Flynn

et al. 2019

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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Aim Most protist plankton are mixotrophic, with potential to engage in photoautotrophy and phagotrophy; however, the ecology of these organisms has been misdiagnosed for over a century. A large proportion of these organisms are constitutive mixotrophs (CMs), with an innate ability to photosynthesize. Here, for the first time, an analysis is presented of the biogeography of CMs across the oceans. Location Global marine ecosystems. Time period 1970–2018. Major taxa studied Marine planktonic protists. Methods Records for CM species, primarily from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), were grouped by taxonomy and size to evaluate sampling efforts across Longhurst's oceanic provinces. Biases were evaluated through nonparametric tests and multivariate analysis. Biogeographies of CMs from OBIS data were compared with data from studies that specifically targeted these organisms. Results Constitutive mixotrophs of different taxonomic groups, across all size ranges, are ubiquitous. However, strong database biases were detected with respect to organism size, taxonomic groups and region. A strong bias was seen towards dinophytes. Species < 20 µm, especially non‐dinophytes, were least represented, with their recorded distribution limited to coastal regions and to temperate and polar seas. Studies specifically targeting these organisms revealed their distribution to be much wider. Such biases are likely to have occurred owing to a failure to capture and correctly identify these organisms in routine sampling protocols. Main conclusions Constitutive mixotrophs are dominant members of organisms traditionally termed “phytoplankton”. However, lack of routine protocols for measuring phagotrophy in “phytoplankton” protists has led to widespread misrepresentation of the fundamental nature of marine planktonic primary producers; most express both “animal‐like” and “plant‐like” nutrition. Our results have implications for studies of the global biogeography of plankton, of food web dynamics (including models) and of biogeochemical cycling in the oceans.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The term biogeography was coined in the late 19th century, stemming from studies of terrestrial plants and animals (Ebach, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sampling bias misrepresents the biogeographical significance of constitutive mixotrophs across global oceans

Leles

Mitra

Flynn

et al. 2019

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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“…26. The socio-political work of Arldt (1915) argued for the polythetic origin of human races (see Ehrenreich 2007, p. 28); a concept that was well and truly buried since the Kant-Forster race theory debate of the late 18 th century (see Ebach 2015). 27.…”

Section: Summing Up Arldtmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biogeographers, who did focus on living taxa and their distributions, had moved on. Zoogeographers had rejected the Wallace view of static regions in favour of dynamic biota, while the phytogeographers principally embraced the ecological approach of vegetation maps and climatic factors (see Ebach 2015). The role of phylogenies and biogeographical classifications was to make a comeback by the end of the 20th century, and by that time Arldt's work would have been too outdated.…”

Section: Summing Up Arldtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theodor Arldt (1878–1960): Parochial Pauker and Pioneering Palaeobiogeographer

Ebach

Dowding

2017

Zootaxa

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The rise and fall of Theodor Karl Hermann Arldt took place in Radeberg, a small town in Saxony between 1902 and 1945, where he supported his research by working as a school headmaster or Pauker. Within his many scientific papers and books Arldt pioneered palaeogeography and palaeobiogeography by introducing distributional data of living organisms to understand past continental connections. His writings influenced notable scientists such as Alfred Wegener and partially influenced the geological community in which palaeogeography was firmly rooted. While Arldt's biogeographic approach was novel, and in hindsight surprisingly modern, it failed to engage biologists where such a method may have flourished. As a small town Pauker, Arldt had little or no contact with universities and university students, leaving a legacy of pioneering publications and ideas but no one to carry them forward into the post-tectonic world of the 1960s.

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“…Biogeography has been defined in several ways, either as the study of the geographical distribution of taxa and their attributes in space and time (Morrone, 2009), as the study of life distribution over time (Ebach, 2015), and even as the study of the spatial dimension of evolution (Zunino & Zullini, 1995). Any analysis of the spatial patterns of biodiversity is necessarily historical itself (Halffter & Moreno, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognizing spatial patterns of biodiversity during the nineteenth century: The roots of contemporary biogeography

Juárez-Barrera

Bueno-Hernández

Morrone

et al. 2018

Journal of Biogeography

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Aim We review the works of three pre‐Darwinian authors—Alexander von Humboldt, Augustin de Candolle and Alphonse de Candolle. Contrary to what other historiographers have claimed, we think that their works were not merely descriptive, nor did they adhere strictly to the inductivist model. Furthermore, the patterns described by these authors are still being studied extensively in biogeography. Method We analyse the main concepts provided by these authors on the spatial patterns of biodiversity, and discuss how they served to construct the conceptual framework of contemporary biogeography. Results In the early 19th century, secular naturalists began postulating explanations supported by empirical evidence and based on physical causes. The studied authors were extremely cautious when proposing hypotheses, considering that any statement not based on empirical evidence was mere conjecture. When we analyse the way they developed explanations, it seems evident that they were rather closer to deductive thought than to the orthodox inductivist model. With the rise of Darwinian evolutionism, naturalists lost interest in the spatial patterns of life and began constructing dynamic models where dispersal of individual lineages from northern centres of origin was proposed to explain their current distribution. Paradoxically, even though the evolutionary paradigm soon proved its great explanatory power, it simultaneously promoted a large number of studies in which speculation prevailed. Main conclusions Even though the practices and methods of current biogeography have changed substantially, the studied patterns are still the same: (1) geographical gradients of richness and biotic replacement, (2) spatial gradients of functional groups, (3) geographical variation of the phenotype, (4) geographical patterns of expansion‐differentiation of single lineages and (5) biogeographical homology. The studied authors not only described rigorously biogeographical patterns, but also proposed explanations about them and even sometimes tested them based on empirical evidence, going beyond the prevalent inductivist canon.

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Origins of Biogeography

Cited by 43 publications

References 41 publications

Sampling bias misrepresents the biogeographical significance of constitutive mixotrophs across global oceans

Sampling bias misrepresents the biogeographical significance of constitutive mixotrophs across global oceans

Theodor Arldt (1878–1960): Parochial Pauker and Pioneering Palaeobiogeographer

Recognizing spatial patterns of biodiversity during the nineteenth century: The roots of contemporary biogeography

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