Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Modern biogeographic classification began with de Candolle (1820, 1838)
for plants (phytogeography) and Wallace (1876) for animals (zoogeo-
graphy). De Candolle (1820) recognized twenty botanical regions: northern
Asia, Europe, and America; southern Europe and north of the Mediter-
ranean; Siberia; Mediterranean area; eastern Europe to the Black and
Caspian seas; India; China, Indochina, and Japan; Australia; south Africa;
east Africa; tropical west Africa; Canary Islands; northern United States;
northwest coast of North America; the Antilles; Mexico; tropical America;
Chile; southern Brazil and Argentina; and Tierra del Fuego. De Candolle
(1838) added another twenty regions, making a total of forty. They have
remained the basis for some more modern treatments (e.g., Good 1974;
Takhtajan 1969). Wallace's (1876) system of six zoogeographic regions,
built on a previous work by Sclater (1858), is probably the most generally
known biogeographic global terrestrial regionalization (Bartholomew et al.
1911; Lankester 1905). It consists of six regions: Nearctic, Neotropical,
Palearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian. These large zoogeographic
regions were divided into subregions, which basically correspond to de Can-
dolle's (1820) regions.
Alongside the development of these systems were efforts to construct
ecogeographic systems (Allen 1871; Udvardy 1969). They are based on the
assumption that adaptations to natural surroundings generally confine spe-
cies in definite areas. Thus, ecogeographic areas or biomes can be delin-
eated by correlating plant and animal distributions with climatic, edaphic,
and other environmental factors (Cox and Moore 1998).
Craw and Page (1988) considered Wallace's system defective because
it was based on a belief in the permanence of continents and oceans since
the time of origin of modern life. They proposed instead a biogeographic
system in which areas now widely separated by oceans and sea basins are
related to one another by generalized tracks. De Candollean and Wallacean
regions are not parts of this system but boundaries where different biotic
components interrelate in space and time. In fact, Craw and Page (1988)
concluded that the natural biogeographic regions for terrestrial and freshwa-
tertaxaarenotpresent-daylandmassesbuttheworld'smajoroceanbasins.
Parenti (1991) reviewed the relevance of ocean basin evolution to the distri-
butionoffreshwaterfishesandterrestrialorganisms,modifyingslightlyCraw
