Biogeography

”Today such questions about the origin and distribution of species and people would be sequestered into a field known as ’biogeography’, a fascinating but mostly obscure branch of science generally considered of marginal public interest,” p.64.

”Back then, biogeographical theory carried far-reaching consequences. The authority of the church, its hold on science, newly emerging from its shadows; the legitimacy of the colonial enterprise – and how generations of descendants would view and police migrants – all hung in the balance.”

This resonated with me. My PhD thesis at the University of Western Ontario was entitled ’An Inquiry into the Nature of Biogeography’ 1976. I pulled it down from the bookshelf. Almost fifty years ago, What did I say at that time?

”Biogeography is concerned with the nature of living matter and the nature of space. The discipline has a significant role in the future of Geography; it must reconcile and integrate contemporary issues of the biological sciences and the paradox of Geography.” p. v.

Before the PhD thesis, there was an M.Sc. thesis completed in 1971. Complexity Analysis of Vegetation Patterns in an Alpine Meadow. In this case, it is over fifty years ago. The location is Castleguard Meadows in the Canadian Rockies, adjacent to the Saskatchewan Glacier and Columbia Icefield.

My interest in Biogeography continued at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and subsequently with the Rare Plants of Canada project at the National Museum under George Argus. This was all prior to working at NSLSI (COGS) in Lawrencetown, starting in 1980.

On the same bookshelf, I found Heather’s M.Sc. thesis from the University of Guelph, dated 1993, Reproductive Biology and Developmental Morphology of Agalinis Neoscotica (Scrophulariaceae ); supervisor, Judy Canne-Hilliker. This is another ’biogeography story’ about a uniquely Nova Scotian species, and its distribution; for another day — it’s really Heather’s story to tell.

Acknowledgements

Bill Crossman passed on his copy of Sonia Shah’s book. Heather discovered the quotations. Edward added the graphics.

References

Sonia Shah, 2020, The Next Great Migration, Bloomsbury

Robert Maher, 1971, Complexity Analysis of Vegetation Patterns in an Alpine Meadow, M.Sc. thesis Department of Geography, UWO.

Robert Maher, 1976, An Inquiry into the Nature of Biogeography, PhD thesis. Department of Geography, UWO.

Heather Stewart, 1993, Reproductive Biology and Developmental Morphology of Agalinis Neoscotica (Scrophulariaceae)