Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Biodiversity
Karl S. Zimmerer
Introducing Biodiversity
Biodiversity is one of the most central and versatile themes of environmental geog-
raphy. It is defi ned as 'the variety and variability among organisms and the ecologi-
cal complexes in which they occur' (OTA, 1987). This defi nition has served as a
mainstay for the establishment of biodiversity as a major theme in both environ-
mental geography and in large interdisciplinary currents across the environmental
sciences and environmental studies (Lubchenco, 1998; Botkin, 2000). In addition
to interdisciplinary exchanges, the interest in biodiversity has expanded via exchanges
between environmental geography and diverse disciplines in the natural sciences,
social sciences, and humanities. As a result, the analysis of biodiversity in this
chapter requires both the outward looking view to broader currents and, at the
same time, close examination within environmental geography per se.
My analysis begins with biodiversity concepts and concerns of policy and manage-
ment that are relevant, but not restricted, to the realm of environmental geography
('Perspectives on Biodiversity'). It then constructs a brief overview of the historical
and geographical parameters of biodiversity science and related themes within
the social sciences and humanities ('Biodiversity: Concepts and Concerns: an Over-
view'). The main part of the analysis is centred on the understandings of biodiversity
concepts that are developed within the subfi eld approaches of biogeography and
physical geography along with ecology and the geosciences ('Biodiversity: Biogeog-
raphy, Ecology, Geosciences, and Genetics'), nature-society geography ('Biodiver-
sity: Nature-Society and Human-Environment'), and human geography and its
related fi elds in the social sciences and humanities ('Biodiversity: Human Geography
and Related Fields'). These subfi elds overlap and coalesce into the 'borderlands' of
environmental geography (Zimmerer, 2007). Indeed, the multi-faceted qualities of
biodiversity are entwined intricately, as shown throughout this entire chapter, with
the approach of environmental geography. Biodiversity's intricate interweaving,
emblematic of environmental geography, is centred on the complex interactions,
agency, and embedding of biodiversity as biogeophysical nature within the lives and
livelihoods of humans as created through social, economic, and cultural practices (for
an earlier discussion see Zimmerer, 1996, pp. 15-25).
