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The study of biogeography gained popularity with the work of Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-to-late 19th Century. Wallace, originally from England, was a naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He first extensively studied the Amazon River and then the Malay Archipelago (the islands located between the mainland of Southeast Asia and Australia). During his time there, he examined the flora and fauna and came up with the Wallace Line - a line that divides Indonesia apart and the distribution the animals found there. Those closer to Asia were said to be more related to Asian animals while those close to Australia were more related to the Australian animals. Because of his extensive early research, Wallace is often called the "Father of Biogeography."
The early works of Wallace
Following Wallace were a number of other biogeographers who also studied the distribution of species. Most of those researchers looked at history for explanations, thus making it a descriptive field. In 1967 though, Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson published The Theory of Island Biogeography. Their book changed the way biogeographers looked at species and made the study of the environmental features of that time important to understanding their spatial patterns. As a result, island biogeography and the fragmentation of habitats caused by islands became popular as it was easy to explain plant and animal patterns on islands. The study of habitat fragmentation in biogeography then led to the development of conservation biology and landscape ecology.
francis1897 answered the question on February 27, 2023 at 07:16