Wallace: Zoogeography and the problem of land bridges

Fichman, Martin

doi:10.1007/bf00126094

Cited by 41 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Mammals and birds are both groups that are believed to have evolved relatively recently. Thus their distributions can be largely interpreted according to a worldview that incorporates uniformitarian principles; their explanation does not require reference to processes that are unobservable, such as continental drift, and which may have operated in the geological past, such as major variations in climate conditions (Fichman, 1977). However, I do not intend to rehearse the debate about Wallace's past influence on the uptake of theories of continental drift here.…”

Section: Wallace and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Biogeographer's Construction of Tropical Lands: A.R. Wallace, Biogeographical Method and The Malay Archipelago

Taylor

2000

Singap J Trop Geogr

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Alfred Russel Wallace is closely associated with the Malay Archipelago. As a collector of biological specimens, he spent eight years in the region during the mid nineteenth-century. Wallace became one of the foremost natural historian-philosophers and a powerful voice in the emerging sub-discipline of biogeography following his return to the UK. He is perhaps best remembered by the Wallace's Line, which bisects the Malay Archipelago, marking an abrupt biogeographical disjunction that is most apparent for mammals and birds. The influence of Wallace's ideas on modern constructions of the Malay Archipelago in particular and the tropical world in general has been profound. Wallace's biogeography, with its reliance on reductionism, scientific taxonomy and the identification and mapping of "native" biota, has also influenced conservation theory and practice. In this paper, I argue that preconceived notions together with predominant values of scientific endeavour during the Victorian period strongly affected Wallace's constructions. The view of tropical environments that Wallace helped to construct is at odds with modern theories of environmental change, while his biogeographical distribution maps share many weaknesses with ethnographic studies of the colonial period. In conclusion, rather than static distribution patterns, the apparently continuous re-mixing of biota in low latitudes offers biogeographers much scope for study. The results of such studies, when combined with a greater awareness of indigenous perceptions and systems of knowledge, would appear to provide a much more secure basis upon which to found conservation thought and practice.

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Section: Wallace and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Biogeographer's Construction of Tropical Lands: A.R. Wallace, Biogeographical Method and The Malay Archipelago

Taylor

2000

Singap J Trop Geogr

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“…Edward Forbes, Jr. (1815–1854) was mainly a zoologist, who studied invertebrates, though he also had an interest in British plants (von Hofsten :301–306, Egerton , Egerton , :135–138, Fichman :45–46, Rehbock 1979, , Mayr :444, Browne :index, Mills , , White ). He beat out Watson to obtain a botany chair at the University of London, which angered Watson, who knew Forbes was not really a botanist, but needed a job.…”

Section: Terrestrial Studies 1700 To 1820mentioning

confidence: 99%

History of Ecological Sciences, Part 61A: Terrestrial Biogeography and Paleobiogeography, 1700–1830s

Egerton

2018

Bulletin Ecologic Soc America

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“…33 Hinzukam,dassW allace in seinen Studienzum MalaiischenArchipeldie Biotamancher Inselgruppene ntlangder Grenze beidenS ubregionen zuschrieb, etwa fürdie Celebes aufeineV ermengungder Floraund Faunaa us derindo-undder austromalaiischen Subregionh inwies. 34 Dies legted en Grundstein fürd ie Betrachtung einesg raduellen Übergangs zwischen denbeidenbiogeografischenSubregionen.Die SchweizerNaturalis-tenF ritz undP aulS arasine twav ertraten um 1900m it alsE rste dieA nsicht,d assd ie ,Wallace-Linie'als eine fließendeG renzez wischenzweiR egionenz uv erstehen sei. 35 Bis in dasfrühe 20.Jahrhundert hinein bestandhingegenEinigkeit darüber, dass diefloristische unddie zoologische Geschichtedes MalaiischenArchipels disparat seienund somit getrennt untersucht werden müssten.…”

Section: Diee Inordnungd Er Pflanzenmigrationa Uf Diep Hilippinen In unclassified

Die Neuordnung pflanzengeografischen Wissens als „Transitzone“ Wallacea. Ein amerikanisches Expansionsprojekt auf den Philippinen, 1902–1928

Walch

2016

Ber Wissenschaftsgesch

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The Reshaping of Phytogeographical Knowledge as the “Transition zone” Wallacea: An American Expansion Project in the Philippines, 1902–1928. This paper examines the development of a concept that to this day plays an important role in biogeography: the region Wallacea. Focussing on the work of the American tropical botanist Elmer D. Merrill in the Philippines, I argue that his research on the geographical movement and settlement of Philippine plants reflects a shift in the United States’ scientific and cultural understanding of the Pacific area towards a notion of “American tropics”. While inventorying plants for the American administration from 1901 to 1923, the composition of Philippine flora prompted Merrill to question biogeographical regionalization in Wallace's Malay Archipelago. Not being able to situate the Philippine flora within “Asian” or “Australasian” biota, Merrill described the islands as an area of trans‐regional plant migration. Together with the paleontologist Roy E. Dickerson, he later conceptualized the region Wallacea as biogeographical “transition zone” between the Philippines and Australia. In addition to the scientific conceptualization, Wallacea constitutes a space between two biogeographical subregions, whose flora was considered as being part of both, but could not be unambiguously attributed to either of these regions. In this respect, the plants resembled the inhabitants of the United States’ insular overseas territories, who were legally defined neither as aliens nor as citizens. In this sense, Wallacea embodies epistemic as well as geopolitical boundaries, while its case also illustrates some of the ways in which colonial interests in the usability of plants found expression in botanical research during the early period of American overseas expansion.

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Wallace: Zoogeography and the problem of land bridges

Cited by 41 publications

References 7 publications

A Biogeographer's Construction of Tropical Lands: A.R. Wallace, Biogeographical Method and The Malay Archipelago

A Biogeographer's Construction of Tropical Lands: A.R. Wallace, Biogeographical Method and The Malay Archipelago

History of Ecological Sciences, Part 61A: Terrestrial Biogeography and Paleobiogeography, 1700–1830s

Die Neuordnung pflanzengeografischen Wissens als „Transitzone“ Wallacea. Ein amerikanisches Expansionsprojekt auf den Philippinen, 1902–1928

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