Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the island of Madagascar; none are native elsewhere. The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution.

Physical, climatic, and biological factors can contribute to endemism. The Orange-breasted Sunbird is exclusively found in the fynbos vegetation zone of southwestern South Africa. Political factors can play a part if a species is protected, or actively hunted, in one jurisdiction but not another.

There are two subcategories of endemism - paleoendemism and neoendemism. Paleoendemism refers to a species that was formerly widespread but is now restricted to a smaller area. Neoendemism refers to a species that has recently arisen such as a species that has diverged and become reproductively isolated, or one that has formed following hybridization and is now classified as a separate species. This is a common process in plants, especially those that exhibit polyploidy.

James Tiedje is the director of the NSF Center for Microbial Ecology (CME) at Michigan State University, as well as a Professor of Crop and Soil Sciences and Microbiology. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003 and served as president of the American Society for Microbiology from 2004-2005. The Center he directed developed novel methods for microbial community analysis that have greatly expanded knowledge about complex microbial communities in soil, sediments, engineered systems, the oceans and within animals. He also created experiments to detect life on Mars that were carried aboard the Viking Mars landers.

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