A second horizon scan of biogeography: golden ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen

Michael N. Dawson; Jan C. Axmacher; Carl Beierkuhnlein; Jessica Blois; Bethany A. Bradley; Anna F. Cord; Jürgen Dengler; Kate S. He; Lawrence R. Heaney; Roland Jansson; Miguel D. Mahecha; Corinne Myers; David Bravo Nogues; Anna Papadopoulou; Björn Reu; Francisco Rodríguez-Sánchez; Manuel J. Steinbauer; Alycia Stigall; Mao Ning Tuanmu; Daniel G. Gavin

doi:10.21425/F58429770

A second horizon scan of biogeography: golden ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen

Michael N. Dawson^*, Jan C. Axmacher, Carl Beierkuhnlein, Jessica Blois, Bethany A. Bradley, Anna F. Cord, Jürgen Dengler, Kate S. He, Lawrence R. Heaney, Roland Jansson, Miguel D. Mahecha, Corinne Myers, David Bravo Nogues, Anna Papadopoulou, Björn Reu, Francisco Rodríguez-Sánchez, Manuel J. Steinbauer, Alycia Stigall, Mao Ning Tuanmu, Daniel G. Gavin

^*Corresponding author for this work

4 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

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 7th 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.

Original language	English
Article number	e29770
Journal	Frontiers of Biogeography
Volume	8
Issue number	4
Number of pages	30
ISSN	1948-6596
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.21425/F58429770
Publication status	Published - 2016

Keywords

Anthropocene
Biodiversity conservation
Birds
Ecoinformatics
Functional diversity
Island biogeography
Macroecology
Mammals
Paleoecology
Phylogenetics
Plants
Species distribution modelling (SDM)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Dawson, M. N., Axmacher, J. C., Beierkuhnlein, C., Blois, J., Bradley, B. A., Cord, A. F., Dengler, J., He, K. S., Heaney, L. R., Jansson, R., Mahecha, M. D., Myers, C., Nogues, D. B., Papadopoulou, A., Reu, B., Rodríguez-Sánchez, F., Steinbauer, M. J., Stigall, A., Tuanmu, M. N., & Gavin, D. G. (2016). A second horizon scan of biogeography: golden ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen. Frontiers of Biogeography, 8(4), [e29770]. https://doi.org/10.21425/F58429770

Dawson, MN, Axmacher, JC, Beierkuhnlein, C, Blois, J, Bradley, BA, Cord, AF, Dengler, J, He, KS, Heaney, LR, Jansson, R, Mahecha, MD, Myers, C, Nogues, DB, Papadopoulou, A, Reu, B, Rodríguez-Sánchez, F, Steinbauer, MJ, Stigall, A, Tuanmu, MN & Gavin, DG 2016, 'A second horizon scan of biogeography: golden ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen', Frontiers of Biogeography, vol. 8, no. 4, e29770. https://doi.org/10.21425/F58429770

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abstract = "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 7th 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.",

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year = "2016",

doi = "10.21425/F58429770",

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AU - Bradley, Bethany A.

AU - Cord, Anna F.

AU - Dengler, Jürgen

AU - He, Kate S.

AU - Heaney, Lawrence R.

AU - Jansson, Roland

AU - Mahecha, Miguel D.

AU - Myers, Corinne

AU - Nogues, David Bravo

AU - Papadopoulou, Anna

AU - Reu, Björn

AU - Rodríguez-Sánchez, Francisco

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AB - 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 7th 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.

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KW - Biodiversity conservation

KW - Birds

KW - Ecoinformatics

KW - Functional diversity

KW - Island biogeography

KW - Macroecology

KW - Mammals

KW - Paleoecology

KW - Phylogenetics

KW - Plants

KW - Species distribution modelling (SDM)

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DO - 10.21425/F58429770

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SN - 1948-6596

VL - 8

JO - Frontiers of Biogeography

JF - Frontiers of Biogeography

IS - 4

M1 - e29770

ER -

A second horizon scan of biogeography: golden ages, Midas touches, and the Red Queen

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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