ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE OR ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT: WHO “INVENTED” BIOGEOGRAPHY?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15167/2612-2960/BELS2020.2.1.1211Abstract
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is traditionally regarded as the father of Biogeography. Thanks to his holistic approach to nature, however, Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) laid the methodological foundations of Ecology and Phytogeography. His attention to the collection of as many data as possible on environmental parameters in order to understand which factors influence species distribution and characters can be considered extremely modern. Therefore, some authors today believe that it would be legitimate to attribute the authorship of biogeography to von Humboldt.
References
Dassow Walls L., 2005. Rediscovering Humboldt’s environmental revolution. Environmental History 10: 758–760.
Humboldt A. von. & Bonpland A., 1807. Essai sur la géographie des plantes, accompagné d’un tableau physique des régions équinoxiales. Levrault & Schoell, Paris.
Keppel G. & Kreft H., 2019. Integration and synthesis of quantitative data: Alexander von Humboldt’s renewed relevance in modern biogeography and ecology. Frontiers of Biogeography e43187.
Linder H.P., Aspinall R., Bonaccorso E., Guayasamin J.M., Hoorn C. & Ortega-Andrade H.M., 2019. Editorial. “Humboldt Special Issue: The legacy of Alexander von Humboldt: Exploring the links between geo- and biodiversity”. Journal of Biogeography 46 (8): 1625–1626.
Moret P., Muriel P., Jaramillo R. & Dangles O., 2019. Humboldt’s Tableau Physique revisited. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (26): 12889–12894.
Sclater P.L. 1858. On the general geographical distribution of the members of the class Aves. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London: Zoology 2: 130–145.
Wallace A.R., 1869. The Malay Archipelago. Macmillan, London.
Wallace A.R., 1876. The geographical distribution of animals. 2 vols. Macmillan, London.
Wallace A.R., 1880. Island life. Macmillan, London.
Wegener A., 1915. Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane. Vieweg, Braunschweig.
Whittaker R.J., Riddle B.R., Hawkins B.A. & Ladle R.J., 2013. The geographical distribution of life and the problem of regionalization: 100 years after Alfred Russel Wallace. Journal of Biogeography 40 (12): 2209–2214.
Wulf A., 2015. The invention of nature: the adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the lost hero of science. John Murray Press (Hodder & Stoughton), London.
