Abstract
‘Why do you want to get a degree in map-making?’, I was often asked while working towards an undergraduate degree in geography. I usually replied: ‘That’s not what geography is all about.’ But the question that usually came next was more probing: ‘Well, what’s geography all about then?’ I confidently answered this question by describing what I liked about geography. Geography is for people who are interested in lots of different things. Where else can you learn about earth history, evolution, sociology and economics all in the same semester? This usually satisfied the questioner.
But I hadn’t really answered their question. What separates geography from other academic disciplines? The more I thought about it, the more troubling it became. I didn’t have an answer to this simple question. I still don’t. In fact, I’m not sure anyone has a succinct, fulfilling definition for the science of geography.
The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography explores an important subset of this problem, namely ‘What is biogeography to a geographer?’. Because biogeography represents the marriage of geography and biology, students have a choice to learn about it in two different departments. Is there a research-based difference between the two perspectives?
As one might expect, Millington, Blumler and Schickhoff’s edited volume does not provide a succinct answer to this question. But, in all fairness, we might not ever be able to answer this question to everyone’s satisfaction. It does, however, provide a thorough impression of the diversity of thought underpinning ‘geographical’ biogeography.
The book contains 31 chapters that were written by 52 authors. The authors collectively display a diverse range of scientific interests and backgrounds, but most come from North America and Europe, and to a lesser extent Australasia. Chapters are organized into five sections, each covering a major research theme in biogeography. Many of the papers, and the sections into which they are classified, are not exclusive and there is considerable overlap in content and organization.
‘Revisiting theories and concepts’ (Section I) covers phylogeography, Pleistocene refugia, landscape ecology, diversity theory, classification of biogeographic phenomena and a brief history of biogeographical thought. ‘Explaining distributions, gradients, and disturbances’ (Section II) describes biogeographic distributions, gradients, fire ecology and climate change. ‘Reconsidering biomes and ecosystems’ (Section III) provides a general description of research into several biogeographic regions, including polar ecosystems, boreal forests, alpine habitats, savannahs, tropical forests and human modified (agricultural and urban) environments. ‘Utilizing mapping and modelling’ (Section IV) presents common analytical techniques used by biogeographers, including spatial analyses, simulation, predictive modelling, biocomplexity models and two chapters on remote sensing. Lastly, ‘Linking biogeography and society’ (Section V) covers ethnobotany, species invasions, bioindicators, historical biogeography and conservation biogeography.
Most chapters are aimed at entry-level graduate students, and taken as a whole the book provides an advanced introduction to biogeographic topics that most would consider required knowledge for a first- or second-year graduate student. Several chapters are exemplary in this regard. Chapter 3 (D.A. Griffin) provides a succinct introduction to the study of species diversity, Chapter 6 (B.R. Riddle) covers the use of molecular phylogenetic tools in biogeography admirably, and Chapter 7 (K.J. Willis, S.A. Bhagwat, and M.E. Edwards) is an excellent, critical review of work on Pleistocene refugia. Fire-adapted ecosystems and tropical dry forests are also discussed expertly in Chapters 11 (N.J. Enright) and 15 (J. Mistry), respectively.
Although most chapters are aimed at incoming graduate students, the target audience shifts strongly among some chapters. For example, Chapter 8 (U. Schickhoff) is pitched at a much less experienced audience than the ones mentioned above and would be more appropriate for a first-year undergraduate course. Although Chapter 20 (G.M. Foody and A.C. Millington) is a great introduction to remote sensing techniques, many of the acronyms and associated jargon are not defined properly, which confounds a complete understanding of the chapter’s content to a newcomer.
So how far does the book go towards answering the question ‘What is biogeography to a geographer?’? Not all researchers will agree with this characterization of the discipline, but here is my best effort to identify the most salient features of The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography.
(1) Geographical biogeographers often focus on applied issues. One of the five sections in the book is dedicated exclusively to human-related elements of biogeography. Given that interest in the relationship between biogeogoegraphy and human endeavours has accelerated in recent years, this level of coverage is both appropriate and satisfying. Many chapters located elsewhere in the book are also strongly applied in focus, again to good effect. For example, Chapter 12 provides a nice review of the ramifications of climate change, and phenological changes in particular. While I personally think this is important and interesting, I wonder how many readers would feel this subject fits naturally under the heading of ‘biogeography’.
(2) Geographical biogeographers work exclusively in terrestrial systems. Most of the earth’s surface is covered in water and interest in marine biogeography has grown tremendously in recent years. However, it is ignored entirely in this book, so students interested in the biogeography of marine ecosystems will be disappointed.
(3) Geographical biogeographers study plants. Nearly every chapter in the book deals exclusively with plants. Only a few make notable references to animals.
(4) Geographical biogeographers work mostly in cold-temperate, terrestrial environments. Island ecosystems have played a critically important role in the development of biogeography as a scientific discipline. Although several important contributions derived from work on islands are covered briefly in chapters dedicated to other topics, I was surprised that islands were not given their own chapter in the biomes and ecosystems chapter. Mediterranean and desert biomes are also overlooked in favour of alpine, polar and subpolar plant communities.
(5) Geographical biogeographers study the history of biogeography in the same way as other bioeographical phenomena. Classifying biogeographic information and putting it on a map is a long-standing tradition in geographical biogeography. Chapter 5 (‘Classification of biogeographical and ecological phenomena’, by A. Schwabe and A. Kratochwil) is a great example of this approach. The first two chapters (‘Situating contemporary biogeography’ by A.C. Millington, M.A. Blumler and U. Schickhoff, and ‘History of biogeographical thought’ by M.A. Blumler, A. Cole, J. Flenley and U. Schickhoff) describe the history of biogeographic thought using much the same approach. Influential biogeographers are identified, described and then classified geographically. I personally learned a lot from these two chapters. But students longing for a mechanistic understanding of the history of biogeography – how and why influential paradigms have come and gone through time – might be left unsatisfied.
These generalizations about The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography may, or may not, characterize ‘geographic’ biogeography. Undoubtedly, they result from the selection of contributing authors, each of which describes their own perspective on the discipline. Perhaps this is a fitting answer to what biogeography is all about. Biogeography means different things to different geographers, who often have divergent views on the subject and its audience. This is the impression one gets after reading The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography – characterizing the discipline accurately is a challenging thing to do.