Origins of Biogeography: The role of biological classification in early plant and animal geography

185 Pages·2015·3.97 MB·English

by  Malte Christian Ebach (auth.)

History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences
Malte Christian Ebach
Origins of
Biogeography
The role of biological classifi cation in
early plant and animal geography
History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life
Sciences
Volume 13
Editors
CharlesT.Wolfe,GhentUniversity,Belgium
PhilippeHuneman,IHPST(CNRS/UniversitéParisIPanthéon-Sorbonne),France
ThomasA.C.Reydon,LeibnizUniversitätHannover,Germany
EditorialBoard
MarshallAbrams(UniversityofAlabamaatBirmingham)
AndreAriew(Missouri)
MinusvanBaalen(UPMC,Paris)
DomenicoBertoloniMeli(Indiana)
RichardBurian(VirginiaTech)
PietroCorsi(EHESS,Paris)
FrançoisDuchesneau(UniversitédeMontréal)
JohnDupré(Exeter)
PaulFarber(OregonState)
LisaGannett(SaintMary’sUniversity,Halifax)
AndyGardner(Oxford)
PaulGriffiths(Sydney)
JeanGayon(IHPST,Paris)
GuidoGiglioni(WarburgInstitute,London)
ThomasHeams(INRA,AgroParisTech,Paris)
JamesLennox(Pittsburgh)
AnnickLesne(CNRS,UPMC,Paris)
TimLewens(Cambridge)
EdouardMachery(Pittsburgh)
AlexandreMétraux(ArchivesPoincaré,Nancy)
HansMetz(Leiden)
RobertaMillstein(Davis)
StaffanMüller-Wille(Exeter)
DominicMurphy(Sydney)
FrançoisMunoz(UniversitéMontpellier2)
StuartNewman(NewYorkMedicalCollege)
FrederikNijhout(Duke)
SamirOkasha(Bristol)
SusanOyama(CUNY)
KevinPadian(Berkeley)
DavidQueller(WashingtonUniversity,StLouis)
StéphaneSchmitt(SPHERE,CNRS,Paris)
PhillipSloan(NotreDame)
JacquelineSullivan(WesternUniversity,London,ON)
GiuseppeTesta(IFOM-IEA,Milano)
J.ScottTurner(Syracuse)
DenisWalsh(Toronto)
MarcelWeber(Geneva)
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/8916
Malte Christian Ebach
Origins of Biogeography
The role of biological classification in early
plant and animal geography
123
MalteChristianEbach
BiologicalEarth&EvironmentalSciences
UNSW
Kensington,Australia
ISSN2211-1948 ISSN2211-1956 (electronic)
History,PhilosophyandTheoryoftheLifeSciences
ISBN978-94-017-9998-0 ISBN978-94-017-9999-7 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-94-017-9999-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015939579
SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergNewYorkLondon
©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaDordrecht2015
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartof
thematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,
broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation
storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology
nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication
doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant
protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthisbook
arebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublishernortheauthorsor
theeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforany
errorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.
Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerScience+Business MediaB.V.DordrechtispartofSpringerScience+Business Media(www.
springer.com)
Drawinglinesona map justto showI’m there
– BearCage/G.m.b.H (TheStranglers,1980)

Prologue
Biogeography meansdifferentthingstodifferentpeopledepending, ofcourse, upontheir
outlookandupontheirbiases(Ball1975:407)
There is no scientific field more contentious, fragmented and misunderstood as
biogeography. The confusion as to what biogeography is and how one defines it
has presented both scientists and historians of science with a convoluted history.
Do we define biogeography by ideas or by what biogeographers actually do?
Many histories of biogeography (plant and animal geography), written by both
historiansofscienceandscientists,areaboutideas,mostlyaboutthedevelopmentof
evolutionarytheories.Otherhistoriesconcentrateontheresultsofbiogeographical
practice,suchastheoriesderivedfromstudyingdisjunctdistributions.Fewhistories,
however, focus on what biogeographers actually do and fewer still are aimed at
scientists.
In this book I present a history of scientific practice, a science historiography,
namely the history of methods used by plant and animal geographerbetween the
1770sandthe1890s.Ihavedonethisbyrereadingthehistoricalscientificliterature,
ratherthanengagingintheliteraturewrittenbyhistoriansofscience.Thepointofa
“sciencehistoriography”istopresentthetwenty-first-centurybiogeographerswitha
historytheycanunderstandandrelatetointermsofhowtheypractisetheirscience.I
amascientistandapractitionerofbiogeographyandsystematics,andIhavewritten
thisbookprimarilyforthe sciencecommunity.Historiansofsciencemayuse this
book as a secondary resource and as an opportunity to study the viewpoint of a
twenty-first-centuryscientist.
The term biogeographywas coined late in the nineteenth century separately in
GermanandEnglish,atatimewhenplantandanimalgeographywerebothfirmly
establishedbutpractisedseparately.Thecallstounifyplantandanimalgeography
within a “biogeography” were made at a time when early forms of ecology
(vegetationgeography)andtaxonomywerebattlingforanaturalclassification.This
booklooksathowthe practice ofclassification hasshapedearly plantand animal
geographybeforethe1890s.
vii
viii Prologue
This book will also examine how scientific specialisation has favoured certain
forms of practice over others. For instance, the botanical geography of Augustin
PyramusdeCandollewasinpartadmonishedbycertainplantgeographersduetoits
apparentuseof“artificial”regions,ratherthan“natural”vegetableformations:the
formerrequiredtrainingintaxonomy,geographyandEarthhistory,whilethelatter
wasahistorical,basedonmeasurement,andthereforeeasiertodo.Classification,a
formofacademicspecialisation,influencedthepracticeofregionalisation,suchas
the mappingof taxonomicgroupsof plants and vegetationtypes (e.g. woodlands,
savannahs).
OriginsofBiogeographyaimstoexplainthemultipleoriginsofthenineteenth-
century plant and animal geography (later called biogeography), to show that it
wasinfluencedbymethodsandpracticesfromotherfieldsandtodemonstratethat
the plant and animal geography practised in 1800 is vastly different from that in
1900 and 2000. I will also show that scientific practice and specialisation, rather
than scientific ideas or theories, drove plant and geography between 1777 and
1900. A history of scientific practice may help a practicing twenty-first-century
biogeographerunderstandtherelevanceandimpactofclassificationonthehistory
oftheirfield.Focusingonthepracticeofclassification,ratherthanonevolutionary
or developmental theories or syntheses, presents a different history of plant and
animalgeographyaltogether.
Another aspect to this book is to challenge our current understanding of how
biogeographywaspractisedbyengagingscientistswithahistorythattheymaynot
otherwiseread.Recenthistoriesofbiogeography,writtenbyscientists,aresteeped
inthesearchforthefoundersofideasoractsasatool,onethatAustralianhistorian
andphilosopherofscienceJohnS.Wilkinsbelieves:
::: has only an instrumental value in science. If it can be used to advance particular
scientific claims then it is valuable; elsewise it is simply vapid, irrelevant or a waste of
timeandresources,accordingtoscientists.(Wilkins2014,p.281)
Iwillattempttodebunkseveralofthesehistories,namelythatplantandanimal
geographieshaveclear-cutorigins:
OnecanbeginwithAlexandervonHumboldt(1769–1859),whoisoftenrecognizedasthe
father of plant biogeography [:::] [Wallace] was a key founder of zoogeography [:::]
Overthenext100yearstheconceptsofevolutionandtheroleofdispersalingeographic
patternswereexpanded,buttherewaslittlerealchangeinmethodology.(Wenetal.2013:
913)
Moreover,Ichallengetheideathatevolutionarytheorywastheexpectedoutcome
ofthenineteenth-centuryplantandanimalgeography:
From the beginnings of evolutionary thought in the early to mid-nineteenth century,
geographicpatternsfiguredprominentlybothaschallengestoevolutionaryexplanationand
byprovidingsupportfordescentwithmodification.(Donoghue2013,p.76)
Thepracticeofthenineteenth-centuryplantandanimalgeographywasmorean
attempttounderstandtheworldusingtaxonomicorvegetationclassification,rather
thanthemorepopularstanceofnaturalistsstrivingforaunifiedsynthesis.
Prologue ix
This volume is written primarily for scientists. The length is short, and the
message concise. Each chapter may be read individually,every citation is written
outinfullandthereareplentyofhelpfulfootnotes,areferencesectionandanindex.
I havealso includeda glossaryofhistoricalfigures,allowingfora comprehensive
discussionwithoutthedistractionofintroductions.
Thetextisdividedintosix partsthatcoverthelate eighteenthandmuchofthe
nineteenthcentury.Chapter1introducesbiogeography,anoverviewofthehistories
written by scientists and historians and the role of specialisation in the history of
biogeography.Chapter2focusesontheroleofdistributionaltheoriesonthepractice
of animal and plant biogeography. Chapter 3 follows the development of early
plant geography and the interactions between three of its practitioners, Augustin
PyramusdeCandolle,AlexandervonHumboldtandFriedrichStromeyer,andhow
this had shaped the classification of plant geography. Chapter 4 follows the split
betweentaxonomicandvegetationplantgeographers,theriseofecologicalanimal
geographyandtherivalrybetweenearlyecologistsandevolutionistsovertheroleof
naturalclassification.Chapters5and6willfocusonregionalisation,theapplication
ofanareaclassificationplantandanimalbiogeography.Theendsectionofthebook
containsaglossaryofhistoricalfiguresmentioninthisbook(Biosketches)–ahandy
guideforscientists wishing to knowmore aboutpastpractitionersfeaturedin this
book.
References
Ball,I.R.(1975).Natureandformulationofbiogeographicalhypotheses.SystematicZoology,24,
407–430.
Donoghue, M. J. (2013). Historical biogeography. In J. B.Losos (Ed.), The Princeton guide to
evolution(pp.75–81).Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress.
Wen,J.,Ree,R.H.,Ickert-Bond,S.M.,Nie,Z.,&Funk,V.(2013).Biogeography:Wheredowe
gofromhere?Taxon,62,912–927.
Wilkins, J. S. (2014). Book review, do species exist? Principles of taxonomic classification.
SystematicBiology,63,280–281.