Introductory Chapter: The Main Directions and Tasks of Pure and Applied Biogeography in Solving the Global Problems of Our Time

Abstract

Pure and applied biogeography is the study of the spatial and temporal distribution of taxa, life forms, communities, biomes, and natural or human-influenced ecosystems of our planet in large scales. Biogeography is one of the oldest life sciences, because already since Alexander von Humboldt’s work (1769–1859) it has been a theoretically grounded discipline. Phytogeography and zoogeography are classical subdisciplines of biogeography that study the spatial and temporal distribution of plants and animals, the flora and fauna. Also important recent subdisciplines are island biogeography [1, 2], phylogeography [3], spatial population genetics [4], paleobiogeography [5], systematic and evolutionary biogeography [6, 7, 8], fragmentation, metapopulation and landscape biogeography [9, 10, 11], gradient analyses [12], and ecogeography [13].