Frontispiece to Alfred Russel Wallace's book The Geographical Distribution of Animals

Part of a series on
Evolutionary Biology
Key topics Introduction to evolution Common descent Evidence of common descent
Processes and outcomes Population genetics Variation • Mutation Natural selection • Adaptation Polymorphism (biology) Genetic drift • Gene flow Speciation • Adaptive radiation Co-operation • Coevolution Divergent • Convergent Parallel evolution Extinction
Natural history Origin of Life • History of life Timeline of evolution Human evolution Phylogeny Biodiversity • Biogeography Classification • Cladistics Transitional fossil Extinction event
History of evolutionary theory Overview Timeline of paleontology History of paleontology Renaissance and Enlightenment Before Darwin Darwin • On the Origin of Species Before the Synthesis Modern evolutionary synthesis Molecular evolution • Evo-devo Current research
Fields and applications Applications of evolution Artificial selection Biosocial criminology Ecological genetics Evolutionary aesthetics Evolutionary anthropology Evolutionary computation Evolutionary economics Evolutionary ethics Evolutionary game theory Evolutionary linguistics Evolutionary medicine Evolutionary neuroscience Evolutionary physiology Evolutionary psychology Experimental evolution Phylogenetics Systematics Universal Darwinism
Social implications Theory and fact Social effect Controversy Objections Level of support
Evolutionary Biology Portal Category • Related topics • Book
v t e

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species (biology), organisms, and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area.

Knowledge of spatial variation in the numbers and types of organisms is as vital to us today as it was to our early human ancestors, as we adapt to heterogeneous but geographically predictable environments. Biogeography is an integrative field of inquiry that unites concepts and information from ecology, evolutionary biology, geology, and physical geography.

Modern biogeographic research combines information and ideas from many fields, from the physiological and ecological constraints on organismal dispersal to geological and climatological phenomena operating at global spatial scales and evolutionary time frames.

Introduction[link]

The patterns of species distribution across geographical areas can usually be explained through a combination of historical factors such as: speciation; extinction; continental drift; glaciation, and associated variations in sea level, river routes, and habitat; and river capture; in combination with the geographic constraints of landmass areas and isolation; and the available ecosystem energy supplies.

Over periods of ecological changes, biogeography includes the study of plant and animal species in: their past and/or present living refugium habitat; their interim living sites; and/or their survival locales.^[1] As writer David Quammen put it, "...biogeography does more than ask Which species? and Where. It also asks Why? and, what is sometimes more crucial, Why not?."^[2]

Modern biogeography often employs the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to understand the factors affecting organism distribution, and to predict future trends in organism distribution.^[3] Often mathematical models and GIS are employed to solve ecological problems that have a spatial aspect to them.^[4]

Biogeography is most keenly observed on the world's islands. These habitats are often much more manageable areas of study because they are more condensed than larger ecosystems on the mainland.^[5] Islands are also ideal locations because they allow scientists to look at habitats that new species have only recently colonized and can observe how they disperse throughout the island, the success they achieve in these places, and they can then apply this information to similar mainland habitats. Islands are very diverse in their biomes, ranging from the tropical to arctic climates. This diversity in habitat allows for a wider range of species study in different parts of the world.

One scientist who recognized the importance of these geographic locations was Charles Darwin, who remarked in his journal "The Zoology of Archipelagoes will be well worth examination".^[5] Two chapters in On the Origin of Species were devoted to geographical distribution.

History[link]

Edward O. Wilson, a prominent biologist and conservationist, coauthored The Theory of Island Biogeography and helped to start much of the research that has been done on this topic since the work of Watson and Wallace almost a century before.

The scientific theory of biogeography grows out of the work of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859),^[6] Hewett Cottrell Watson (1804–1881),^[7] Alphonse de Candolle (1806–1893),^[8] Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913),^[9] Philip Lutley Sclater (1829–1913) and other biologists and explorers.^[10]

Wallace studied the distribution of flora and fauna in the Amazon Basin and the Malay Archipelago in the mid-19th century. Wallace and Sclater saw biogeography as a source of support for the theory of evolution. Key findings, such as the sharp difference in fauna either side of the Wallace Line, and the sharp difference that existed between North and South America prior to their relatively recent faunal interchange, can only be understood in this light. Otherwise, the field of biogeography would be seen as a purely descriptive one.

The publication of The Theory of Island Biogeography by Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson in 1967^[11] showed that the species richness of an area could be predicted in terms of such factors as habitat area, immigration rate and extinction rate.

This added to the long-standing interest in island biogeography. The application of island biogeography theory to habitat fragments spurred the development of the fields of conservation biology and landscape ecology.^[12]

Classic biogeography has been expanded by the development of molecular systematics, creating a new discipline known as phylogeography. This development allowed scientists to test theories about the origin and dispersal of populations, such as island endemics. For example, while classic biogeographers were able to speculate about the origins of species in the Hawaiian Islands, phylogeography allows them to test theories of relatedness between these populations and putative source populations in Asia and North America.

Paleobiogeography[link]

Paleobiogeography goes one step further to include paleogeographic data and considerations of plate tectonics. Using molecular analyses and corroborated by fossils, it has been possible to demonstrate that perching birds evolved first in the region of Australia or the adjacent Antarctic (which at that time lay somewhat further north and had a temperate climate). From there, they spread to the other Gondwanan continents and Southeast Asia - the part of Laurasia then closest to their origin of dispersal – in the late Paleogene, before achieving a global distribution in the early Neogene.^[13] Not knowing the fact that at the time of dispersal, the Indian Ocean was much narrower than it is today, and that South America was closer to the Antarctic, one would be hard pressed to explain the presence of many "ancient" lineages of perching birds in Africa, as well as the mainly South American distribution of the suboscines.

Paleobiogeography also helps constrain hypotheses on the timing of biogeographic events such as vicariance and geodispersal, and provides unique information on the formation of regional biotas. For example, data from species-level phylogenetic and biogeographic studies tell us that the Amazonian fish fauna accumulated incrementally over a period of tens of millions of years, principally by means of allopatric speciation, and in an arena extending over most of the area of tropical South America (Albert & Reis 2011). In other words, unlike some of the well-known insular faunas (Galapagos finches, Hawaiian drosophilid flies, African rift lake cichlids), the species-rich Amazonian ichthyofauna is not the result of recent adaptive radiations.^[14]

For freshwater organisms, landscapes are divided naturally into discrete drainage basins by watersheds, episodically isolated and reunited by erosional processes. In regions like the Amazon Basin with an exceptionally low (flat) topographic relief, the many waterways have had a highly reticulated history over geological time. In such a context stream capture is an important factor affecting the evolution and distribution of freshwater organisms. Stream capture occurs when an upstream portion of one river drainage is diverted to the downstream portion of an adjacent basin. This can happen because of tectonic uplift (or subsidence), natural damming as a result of a landslide, or by headward or lateral erosion of the watershed between adjacent basins.^[15]

Classification[link]

Biogeography is a synthetic science, related to geography, biology, soil science, geology, climatology, ecology and evolution.

Some fundamental concepts in biogeography include:

• evolution – change in genetic composition of a population
• extinction – disappearance of a species
• dispersal – movement of populations away from their point of origin, related to migration
• geodispersal – the erosion of barriers to biotic dispersal and gene flow, that permit range expansion and the merging of previously isolated biotas
• range and distribution
• endemic areas
• vicariance – the formation of barriers to biotic dispersal and gene flow, that tend to subdivide species and biotas, leading to speciation and extinction

See also[link]

(alphabetical)

Notes and references[link]

	Environment portal
	Ecology portal
	Earth sciences portal

Further reading[link]

• Albert, J. S., & R. E. Reis (2011). Historical Biogeography of Neotropical Freshwater Fishes. University of California Press, Berkeley. 424 pp. [2]
• Albert, J.S., & W.G.R. Crampton (2010). The geography and ecology of diversification in Neotropical freshwaters. Nature Education 1(10): 3.
• Dansereau, Pierre (1957). Biogeography: An Ecological Perspective. New York City: Ronald Press Company. ISBN 0-8260-2330-4. 
• MacArthur, Robert H. (1972). Geographic Ecology. New York: Harper & Row. 
• McCarthy, Dennis (2009). Here be dragons : how the study of animal and plant distributions revolutionized our views of life and Earth. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954246-8. 

External links[link]

• International Biogeography Society
• Systematic & Evolutionary Biogeographical Society
• Early Classics in Biogeography, Distribution, and Diversity Studies: To 1950
• Early Classics in Biogeography, Distribution, and Diversity Studies: 1951-1975
• Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Major journals[link]

• Journal of Biogeography homepage.
• Global Ecology and Biogeography homepage.
• Ecography homepage.

v t e Biogeography Phylogeography Zoogeography Phytogeography Island biogeography Palaeobiogeography Panbiogeography

v t e Modelling ecosystems – trophic components General Abiotic component Abiotic stress Behaviour Biogeochemical cycle Biomass Biotic component Biotic stress Carrying capacity Competition Ecosystem Ecosystem ecology Ecosystem model Keystone species List of feeding behaviours Metabolic theory of ecology Productivity Producers Autotrophs Chemosynthesis Chemotrophs Foundation species Mixotrophs Myco-heterotrophy Mycotroph Organotrophs Photoheterotrophs Photosynthesis Photosynthetic efficiency Phototrophs Primary nutritional groups Primary production Consumers Apex predator Bacterivore Carnivores Chemoorganotroph Foraging Generalist and specialist species Intraguild predation Herbivores Heterotroph Heterotrophic nutrition Insectivore Mesopredator release hypothesis Omnivores Optimal foraging theory Predation Prey switching Decomposers Chemoorganoheterotrophy Decomposition Detritivores Detritus Microorganisms Archaea Bacteriophage Environmental microbiology Lithoautotroph Lithotrophy Microbial cooperation Microbial ecology Microbial food web Microbial intelligence Microbial loop Microbial mat Microbial metabolism Phage ecology Food webs Biomagnification Ecological efficiency Ecological pyramid Energy flow Food chain Trophic level Example webs Cold seeps Hydrothermal vents Intertidal Kelp forests Lakes North Pacific Subtropical Gyre Rivers San Francisco Estuary Soil Tidal pool Processes Ascendency Bioaccumulation Cascade effect Climax community Competitive exclusion principle Consumer-resource systems Copiotrophs Dominance Ecological network Ecological succession Energy quality Energy Systems Language f-ratio Feed conversion ratio Feeding frenzy Mesotrophic soil Nutrient cycle Oligotroph Paradox of the plankton Trophic cascade Trophic mutualism Trophic state index Defense/counter Animal coloration Antipredator adaptations Camouflage Herbivore adaptations to plant defense Mimicry Plant defense against herbivory Predator avoidance in schooling fish

v t e Modelling ecosystems – other components Population ecology Abundance Allee effect Depensation Ecological yield Effective population size Intraspecific competition Logistic function Malthusian growth model Maximum sustainable yield Overpopulation in wild animals Overexploitation Population cycle Population dynamics Population modeling Population size Predator–prey equations Recruitment Resilience Small population size Stability Species Biodiversity Density-dependent inhibition Ecological effects of biodiversity Ecological extinction Endemic species Flagship species Gradient analysis Indicator species Introduced species Invasive species Latitudinal gradients in species diversity Minimum viable population Neutral theory Occupancy-abundance relationship Population viability analysis Priority effect Rapoport's rule Relative abundance distribution Relative species abundance Species diversity Species homogeneity Species richness Species distribution Species-area curve Umbrella species Species interaction Antibiosis Biological interaction Commensalism Community ecology Ecological facilitation Interspecific competition Mutualism Storage effect Spatial ecology Biogeography Cross-boundary subsidy Ecocline Ecotone Ecotype Disturbance Edge effect Foster's rule Habitat fragmentation Ideal free distribution Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis Island biogeography Landscape ecology Landscape epidemiology Landscape limnology Metapopulation Patch dynamics r/K selection theory Source–sink dynamics Niche Ecological niche Ecological trap Ecosystem engineer Environmental niche modelling Guild Habitat Limiting similarity Niche apportionment models Niche construction Niche differentiation Other networks Assembly rules Bateman's principle Bioluminescence Ecological collapse Ecological debt Ecological deficit Ecological energetics Ecological indicator Ecological threshold Ecosystem diversity Emergence Extinction debt Kleiber's law Liebig's law of the minimum Marginal value theorem Thorson's rule Xerosere Other Allometry Alternative stable state Balance of nature Biological data visualization Constructal theory Ecocline Ecological economics Ecological footprint Ecological forecasting Ecological humanities Ecological stoichiometry Ecopath Ecosystem based fisheries Endolith Evolutionary ecology Functional ecology Industrial ecology Macroecology Microecosystem Natural environment Systems ecology Theoretical ecology List of ecology topics

v t e Subfields of physical geography Biogeography Climatology / Paleoclimatology Coastal geography Edaphology Geomorphology Glaciology Hydrology / Hydrography Landscape ecology Limnology Oceanography Palaeogeography Pedology/Soil science Quaternary science

v t e Biology Subdisciplines of Biology Anatomy Astrobiology Biochemistry Biogeography Biomechanics Biophysics Bioinformatics Biostatistics Botany Cell biology Cellular microbiology Chemical biology Chronobiology Conservation biology Developmental biology Ecology Epidemiology Epigenetics Evolutionary biology Genetics Genomics Histology Human biology Immunology Marine biology Mathematical biology Microbiology Molecular biology Mycology Nanobiotechnology Neuroscience Nutrition Origin of life Paleontology Parasitology Pathology Pharmacology Physiology Quantum biology Systematics Systems biology Taxonomy Toxicology Zoology Hierarchy of Life Biosphere >  Ecosystem > Community (Biocoenosis) > Population >  Organism > Organ system > Organ > Tissue > Cell > Organelle > Molecule (Macromolecule · Biomolecule) > Atom Foundations of Biology Cell theory Ecology Energy Transformation Evolution Genetics Homeostasis Taxonomy Principles of Evolution Adaptation Genetic drift Gene flow Macroevolution Microevolution Mutation Natural selection Speciation Principles of Ecology Biodiversity Biological interaction Community Ecosystem Habitat Niche Population Dynamics Resources Principles of Molecular Biology Cell signalling Development Epigenetics Gene regulation Meiosis Mitosis Post-transcriptional modification Principles of Biochemistry Carbohydrates Lipids Metabolism Nucleic Acids Photosynthesis Proteins Glossaries Botanical terms Ecological terms Plant morphology terms Category Portal

Jerry Coyne
Jerry Coyne at the University of Chicago, August 2006, with the laboratory cat[1] Dusty.
Born	(1949-12-30)December 30, 1949
Residence	Chicago
Nationality	American
Fields	Ecology and Evolution
Institutions	University of Chicago
Alma mater	College of William & Mary, Harvard University (Ph.D)

Jerry Allen Coyne (born December 30, 1949^[2]) is an American professor of biology, known for his commentary on the intelligent design debate. A prolific scientist, he has published dozens of papers, elucidating on the theory of evolution. He is currently a professor at the University of Chicago in the Department of Ecology and Evolution. His concentration is speciation and ecological and evolutionary genetics, particularly as they involve the fruit fly, Drosophila.^[3] He is the author of the standard text Speciation and the bestselling science popularization Why Evolution is True and maintains a website by the same name.

Academic work[link]

Coyne graduated with a B.S. at the College of William & Mary in 1971. He then earned a Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University, studying under Richard Lewontin, and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Davis. In 1989, he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Coyne has served as Vice President of the Society for the Study of Evolution (1996) and as Associate Editor of Evolution (1985–1988; 1994–2000) and The American Naturalist (1990–1993). He currently teaches evolutionary biology, speciation, genetic analysis, social issues and scientific knowledge, and scientific speaking and writing.

His work is widely published, not only in scientific journals, but also in such mainstream venues as The New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and The New Republic. His research interests include population and evolutionary genetics, speciation, ecological and quantitative genetics, chromosome evolution, and sperm competition.

Coyne is a critic of creationism^[4] including theistic evolution^[5][6] and intelligent design, which he calls "the latest pseudoscientific incarnation of religious creationism, cleverly crafted by a new group of enthusiasts to circumvent recent legal restrictions."^[7]

The Ecuadoran frog Atelopus coynei is named after Coyne. He collected the holotype in a swamp on a frogging trip to western Ecuador as a student in the late 1970s.^[8]

Atheism[link]

Coyne is an atheist. He claims that religion and science are incompatible, that only rational evaluation of evidence is capable of reliably discovering the world and the way it works, and that scientists who hold religious views are only reflective of the idea "that people can hold two conflicting notions in their heads at the same time". He suggests that "the incompatibility of science and faith" is demonstrated by the fact that, according to Elaine Howard Ecklund, 64% of American scientists are atheists or agnostics.^[9]

As well as evolution-related topics, his website, Why Evolution Is True, discusses atheism, the incompatibility of science and religion, science, and other topics.

Noteworthy scientific papers[link]

Some of Coyne's peer-reviewed scientific publications include three papers in Nature and three in Science:^[10]

• Matute, D.R., I.A. Butler, D.A. Turossini, and J.A. Coyne. 2010. A test of the snowball theory for the rate of evolution of hybrid incompatibilities. Science 329 1518-1521. doi:10.1126/science.1193440
• Llopart, A., S. Elwyn and J.A. Coyne. 2002. Pigmentation and mate choice in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature 419: 360. doi:10.1038/419360a
• Greenberg, A.J., J.R. Moran, J.A. Coyne and C-I. Wu. 2003. Ecological adaptation during incipient speciation revealed by precise gene replacement. Science 302: 1754-1757. doi:10.1126/science.1090432
• Coyne, J. A., A. P. Crittenden, and K. Mah. 1994. Genetics of a pheromonal difference contributing to reproductive isolation in Drosophila. Science 265:1461-1464. doi:10.1126/science.8073292
• Price, C.S.C., K. A. Dyer, and J. A. Coyne. 1999. Sperm competition between Drosophila males involves both displacement and incapacitation. Nature 400:449-452 doi:10.1038/22755
• Coyne, J. A. 1992. Genetics and speciation. Nature 355:511-515. doi:10.1038/355511a0

Books[link]

• Coyne, Jerry A.; H. Allen Orr (2004-06-30). Speciation. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland, Mass.. ISBN 0-87893-089-2. 
• Coyne, Jerry A. (2009-01-22). Why Evolution is True. Viking, New York (USA); Oxford University Press, Oxford (UK). ISBN 0-19-923084-6. OCLC 233549529. 

Online articles[link]

• "The faith that dares not speak its name: The Case Against Intelligent Design.", The New Republic
• "Ann Coulter and Charles Darwin. Coultergeist.", The New Republic
• "Seeing and Believing: The never-ending attempt to reconcile science and religion, and why it is doomed to fail.", The New Republic
• The Great Mutator", The New Republic (Review of Michael Behe's The Edge of Evolution)
• "Speciation" (co-author H. A. Orr)
• Coyne, Jerry A. (2001). "Creationism by Stealth". Nature 410 (6830): 745–746. DOI:10.1038/35071144. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/Coyne-IconsReview.htm. 
• "A Letter to Charles Darwin" OUP Blog (celebrating the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Why Evolution is True - Official website
• Faculty website at the University of Chicago
• 'Why Evolution Is True' by Jerry Coyne - one hour video at ExChristian.net
• "Speciation" list from Sinauer