The recent progress in analytical methods, aided by bringing in a wide range of other disciplines, opens up the study to a broader field, which means that biogeography now goes far beyond a simple description of the distribution of living species on Earth.
Originating with Alexander von Humboldt, biogeography is a discipline in which ecologists and evolutionists aim to understand the way that living species are organized in connection with their environments. Today, as we face major challenges such as global warming, massive species extinction and devastating pandemics, biogeography offers hypotheses and explanations that may help to provide solutions.
This book presents as wide an overview as possible of the different fields that biogeography interacts with. Sixteen authors from all over the world offer different approaches based on their specific areas of knowledge and experience; thus, we intend to illustrate the vast number of diverse aspects covered by biogeography.
Preface xi / Eric Guilbert
Chapter 1. Origins of Biogeography: A Personal Perspective 1 / Malte C. Ebach
Chapter 2. Analytical Approaches in Biogeography: Advances and Challenges 27 / Isabel Sanmartín
Chapter 3. Phylogeography 59 / Inessa Voet and Violaine Nicolas
Chapter 4. Geophysical Biogeography 81 / Laurent Husson and Pierre Sepulchre
Chapter 5. Island Biogeography 115 / Julia Schmack and Matthew Biddick
Chapter 6. Cave Biogeography 143 / Arnaud Faille
Chapter 7. Soil Bacterial Biogeography at the Scale of France 165 / Battle Karimi and Lionel Ranjard
Chapter 8. Fungal Biogeography 193 / Tarquin Netherway and Mohammad Bahram
Chapter 9. Freshwater Biogeography in a Nutshell 219 / Anthi Oikonomou
Chapter 10. Marine Biogeography 245 / Jorge García Molinos and Irene D. Alabia
Chapter 11. Biogeography of Diseases 275 / Jesús Olivero
Chapter 12. Biogeography and Climate Change 303 / Luisa Maria Diele-Viegas
Chapter 13. Conservation Biogeography: Our Place in the World 321 / Brett R. Riddle
List of Authors 335
Index 337
Éric Guilbert is an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History in France. His research covers how communities of species are organized and how they react to environmental changes.