Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 9
Toward
an
Integrative
Biogeo-
graphy
The enormous methodological diversity in biogeography has led to extreme
views. Keast (1991), Tassy and Deleporte (1999), and Vuilleumier (1999)
suggestedthattheexistenceofmultiplemethodsindicatesthatbiogeography
is far from coherent as a discipline. Morrone and Crisci (1995) and Riddle
and Hafner (2004) found that this attests to the vitality of the field. Ebach and
Humphries (2003:959) stated that “the present plethora of techniques reflect
a lack of scientific debate and agreement as to what constitutes the ontology
(specification of conceptualization) of biogeography.” Brown (2004:32) found
“this explosion both exciting and intimidating.” Walter (2004:907) stated that
“the excitement and challenge of biogeography lies in this extraordinary di-
versity of research.” Many authors are not interested in theoretical aspects
and are interested only in the biotic patterns exhibited by the taxa that they
study. This is evident in the high number of published works where, after the
phylogenetic analysis of the taxon, the author discusses its “biogeography,”
based on the cladogram obtained. The real losers in this complex situation
are the students, who look for answers and find instead a perplexing situ-
ation, leaving them feeling alienated and powerless.
If we compare the situation of biogeography with that of systematics in
recent decades, there is a remarkable difference. Although in systematics al-
ternative approaches have existed (e.g., evolutionary taxonomy, cladistics,
and phenetics), the theoretical-methodological development led to the clear
preeminence of the cladistic approach. In biogeography, no unified approach
has yet emerged. However, in my opinion several points indicate that a
biogeographic synthesis might be developing:
 
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