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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.
