A second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen
<p>Are we entering a new ‘Golden Age’ of biogeography, with continued development of infrastructure and ideas? We highlight recent developments, and the challenges and opportunities they bring, in light of the snapshot provided by the 7<sup>th</sup> biennial meeting of the Internat...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Pensoft Publishers
2016-12-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers of Biogeography |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bx638kb |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849307612104884224 |
|---|---|
| author | Michael N Dawson Jan C. Axmacher Carl Beierkuhnlein Jessica L. Blois Bethany A. Bradley Anna F. Cord Jürgen Dengler Kate S. He Lawrence R. Heaney Roland Jansson Miguel D. Mahecha Corinne Myers David Nogués-Bravo Anna Papadopoulou Björn Reu Francisco Rodríguez-Sánchez Manuel J. Steinbauer Alycia Stigall Mao-Ning Tuanmu Daniel G. Gavin |
| author_facet | Michael N Dawson Jan C. Axmacher Carl Beierkuhnlein Jessica L. Blois Bethany A. Bradley Anna F. Cord Jürgen Dengler Kate S. He Lawrence R. Heaney Roland Jansson Miguel D. Mahecha Corinne Myers David Nogués-Bravo Anna Papadopoulou Björn Reu Francisco Rodríguez-Sánchez Manuel J. Steinbauer Alycia Stigall Mao-Ning Tuanmu Daniel G. Gavin |
| author_sort | Michael N Dawson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Are we entering a new ‘Golden Age’ of biogeography, with continued development of infrastructure and ideas? We highlight recent developments, and the challenges and opportunities they bring, in light of the snapshot provided by the 7<sup>th</sup> biennial meeting of the International Biogeography Society (IBS 2015). We summarize themes in and across 15 symposia using narrative analysis and word clouds, which we complement with recent publication trends and ‘research fronts’. We find that biogeography is still strongly defined by core sub-disciplines that reflect its origins in botanical, zoological (particularly bird and mammal), and geographic (e.g., island, montane) studies of the 1800s. That core is being enriched by large datasets (e.g. of environmental variables, ‘omics’, species’ occurrences, traits) and new techniques (e.g., advances in genetics, remote sensing, modeling) that promote studies with increasing detail and at increasing scales; disciplinary breadth is being diversified (e.g., by developments in paleobiogeography and microbiology) and integrated through the transfer of approaches and sharing of theory (e.g., spatial modeling and phylogenetics in evolutionary–ecological contexts). Yet some subdisciplines remain on the fringe (e.g., marine biogeography, deep-time paleobiogeography), new horizons and new theory may be overshadowed by popular techniques (e.g., species distribution modelling), and hypotheses, data, and analyses may each be wanting. Trends in publication suggest a shift away from traditional biogeography journals to multidisciplinary or open access journals. Thus, there are currently many opportunities and challenges as biogeography increasingly addresses human impacts on, and stewardship of, the planet (e.g., Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). As in the past, biogeographers doubtless will continue to be engaged by new data and methods in exploring the nexus between biology and geography for decades into the future. But golden ages come and go, and they need not touch every domain in a discipline nor affect subdisciplines at the same time; moreover, what appears to be a Golden Age may sometimes have an undesirable ‘Midas touch’. Contexts within and outwith biogeography—e.g., methods, knowledge, climate, biodiversity, politics—are continually changing, and at times it can be challenging to establish or maintain relevance. In so many races with the Red Queen, we suggest that biogeography will enjoy greatest success if we also increasingly engage with the epistemology of our discipline.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2aa95027d80545e68efbe14870bc649c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1948-6596 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Pensoft Publishers |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers of Biogeography |
| spelling | doaj-art-2aa95027d80545e68efbe14870bc649c2025-08-20T03:54:42ZengPensoft PublishersFrontiers of Biogeography1948-65962016-12-018410.21425/F58429770ark:13030/qt8bx638kbA second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red QueenMichael N Dawson0Jan C. Axmacher1Carl Beierkuhnlein2Jessica L. Blois3Bethany A. Bradley4Anna F. Cord5Jürgen Dengler6Kate S. He7Lawrence R. Heaney8Roland Jansson9Miguel D. Mahecha10Corinne Myers11David Nogués-Bravo12Anna Papadopoulou13Björn Reu14Francisco Rodríguez-Sánchez15Manuel J. Steinbauer16Alycia Stigall17Mao-Ning Tuanmu18Daniel G. Gavin19UC MercedUCL Department of Geography, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UKBiogeography, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätstr. 30, 95447 Bayreuth, GermanySchool of Natural Sciences, 5200 North Lake Road, University of California, Merced, CA 95343, USADepartment of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USADepartment of Computational Landscape Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.Plant Ecology, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätstr. 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany and Synthesis Centre (sDiv), German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, GermanyDepartment of Biological Sciences, Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky 42071, USAField Museum of Natural History, 1400 S Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605, USADepartment of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, SwedenMax Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, 07745 Jena, Germany; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, GermanyDepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1 Northrop Hall, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USACenter for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, DenmarkIntegrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EBD-CSIC), Avenida Américo Vespucio s/n, E-41092 Sevilla, SpainInstitute of Biology, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, GermanyIntegrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (EBD-CSIC), Avenida Américo Vespucio s/n, E-41092 Sevilla, SpainSection Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus, DenmarkOhio University, Department of Geological Sciences and OHIO Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies, 316 Clippinger Laboratories, Athens, OH, 45701 USADepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 165 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06520, USA. AND Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA<p>Are we entering a new ‘Golden Age’ of biogeography, with continued development of infrastructure and ideas? We highlight recent developments, and the challenges and opportunities they bring, in light of the snapshot provided by the 7<sup>th</sup> biennial meeting of the International Biogeography Society (IBS 2015). We summarize themes in and across 15 symposia using narrative analysis and word clouds, which we complement with recent publication trends and ‘research fronts’. We find that biogeography is still strongly defined by core sub-disciplines that reflect its origins in botanical, zoological (particularly bird and mammal), and geographic (e.g., island, montane) studies of the 1800s. That core is being enriched by large datasets (e.g. of environmental variables, ‘omics’, species’ occurrences, traits) and new techniques (e.g., advances in genetics, remote sensing, modeling) that promote studies with increasing detail and at increasing scales; disciplinary breadth is being diversified (e.g., by developments in paleobiogeography and microbiology) and integrated through the transfer of approaches and sharing of theory (e.g., spatial modeling and phylogenetics in evolutionary–ecological contexts). Yet some subdisciplines remain on the fringe (e.g., marine biogeography, deep-time paleobiogeography), new horizons and new theory may be overshadowed by popular techniques (e.g., species distribution modelling), and hypotheses, data, and analyses may each be wanting. Trends in publication suggest a shift away from traditional biogeography journals to multidisciplinary or open access journals. Thus, there are currently many opportunities and challenges as biogeography increasingly addresses human impacts on, and stewardship of, the planet (e.g., Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). As in the past, biogeographers doubtless will continue to be engaged by new data and methods in exploring the nexus between biology and geography for decades into the future. But golden ages come and go, and they need not touch every domain in a discipline nor affect subdisciplines at the same time; moreover, what appears to be a Golden Age may sometimes have an undesirable ‘Midas touch’. Contexts within and outwith biogeography—e.g., methods, knowledge, climate, biodiversity, politics—are continually changing, and at times it can be challenging to establish or maintain relevance. In so many races with the Red Queen, we suggest that biogeography will enjoy greatest success if we also increasingly engage with the epistemology of our discipline.</p>http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bx638kbAnthropocenebiodiversity conservationbirdsecoinformaticsfunctional diversityisland biogeographymacroecologymammalspaleoecologyphylogeneticsplantsspecies distribution modelling (SDM) |
| spellingShingle | Michael N Dawson Jan C. Axmacher Carl Beierkuhnlein Jessica L. Blois Bethany A. Bradley Anna F. Cord Jürgen Dengler Kate S. He Lawrence R. Heaney Roland Jansson Miguel D. Mahecha Corinne Myers David Nogués-Bravo Anna Papadopoulou Björn Reu Francisco Rodríguez-Sánchez Manuel J. Steinbauer Alycia Stigall Mao-Ning Tuanmu Daniel G. Gavin A second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen Frontiers of Biogeography Anthropocene biodiversity conservation birds ecoinformatics functional diversity island biogeography macroecology mammals paleoecology phylogenetics plants species distribution modelling (SDM) |
| title | A second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen |
| title_full | A second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen |
| title_fullStr | A second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen |
| title_full_unstemmed | A second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen |
| title_short | A second horizon scan of biogeography: Golden Ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen |
| title_sort | second horizon scan of biogeography golden ages midas touches and the red queen |
| topic | Anthropocene biodiversity conservation birds ecoinformatics functional diversity island biogeography macroecology mammals paleoecology phylogenetics plants species distribution modelling (SDM) |
| url | http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bx638kb |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT michaelndawson asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT jancaxmacher asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT carlbeierkuhnlein asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT jessicalblois asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT bethanyabradley asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT annafcord asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT jurgendengler asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT kateshe asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT lawrencerheaney asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT rolandjansson asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT migueldmahecha asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT corinnemyers asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT davidnoguesbravo asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT annapapadopoulou asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT bjornreu asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT franciscorodriguezsanchez asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT manueljsteinbauer asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT alyciastigall asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT maoningtuanmu asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT danielggavin asecondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT michaelndawson secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT jancaxmacher secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT carlbeierkuhnlein secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT jessicalblois secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT bethanyabradley secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT annafcord secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT jurgendengler secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT kateshe secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT lawrencerheaney secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT rolandjansson secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT migueldmahecha secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT corinnemyers secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT davidnoguesbravo secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT annapapadopoulou secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT bjornreu secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT franciscorodriguezsanchez secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT manueljsteinbauer secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT alyciastigall secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT maoningtuanmu secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen AT danielggavin secondhorizonscanofbiogeographygoldenagesmidastouchesandtheredqueen |