生物地理學: 牛津非常短講013

Very Short Introductions #647

by Mark V. Lomolino, 游旨价 (Translator)

系列總引言 洪廣冀（臺灣大學地理環境資源學系副教授）
引言 游旨价（《橫斷臺灣》作者）

*****
曾有生物學家說：「生物地理學曾經只是最聰明的人獨享的知性美饌，但如今，它不該繼續在公眾間默默無名，而是該與文學和歷史並列，成為真正開明教育中不可或缺的元素。」

生物地理學，將生命的奧秘放在明確的地理脈絡審視，結合巨觀和微觀的尺度變化，綜觀數十億年的地球深歷史，晚近結合統計和數學模式的突破，致力展現生命多樣性背後的機制。

● 你可曾想過希臘神話裡，為何島嶼會出現獨眼巨人？
● 為何島嶼會有大到不會飛的鳥？
● 為何越往熱帶，物種種類越豐富繁複，而越往高緯度，物種體積越來越大？
● 特有種為何只出現在一地？ 哪裡是生物多樣性的熱點？哪裡又能找到當今最稀有、最奇特、最獨特的生命形式？

除了具備全球視野，生物地理學更在「島嶼」找到新的知識入口，生物地理學是「島人」一如你我必修的一堂兼具生物和地理視野的通識課。



生在台灣，我們天生就具備島嶼視野。儘管生物地理學在台灣尚未廣為人知，但我始終堅信，生物地理學是每個台灣人必修的一門生物與地理通識課。台灣為何孕育出如此高比例的特有物種？南島語族又為何揚帆࠲

Genres: Science, Biology, Nonfiction, Geography, Audiobook

169 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 25, 2025

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an easy subject to summarize to say the least. The author, a specialist, did an okay job outlining the major concepts, theories and examples of this rather descriptive field of biology. Still, patterns emerge and generalizations can be made, as the theory of island biogeography so aptly illustrates. Fascinating case studies of adaptive radiation in various places such as Hawaii and Madagascar help fill in the non-theoretical parts of the book, while it concluded with the tracing of our own dispersal from Africa into the rest of the world and the tragic local extinctions that came with that.

Strangely, the examples of unique biota found in South America and discussion of the Wallace line were not included, which were glaring omissions.

[Emil O. W. Kirkegaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly good. I was looking for stuff on animals and their adaptation to climate stuff. It delivers but in an unexpected way.

[Mary Bellamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Authors of books like this have a difficult job. They want the book to be accessible to the general reader but also accurate. Lomolino chose accuracy over accessibility a few times but overall did well. All graphics are black and white in this format but there were times when color could have made the graphics much easier to understand. But these books are what they are and it was an interesting book.

[James Neish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick and easy read but informative nonetheless. The scope is pretty broad (which is the point) thus a good starting point for those looking to better understand the indivisible link between geography and biodiversity. An additional section highlighting some of the key unanswered questions relevant today would have been useful.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book nicely introduces the relationship of living things to location around planet Earth. The writing style is unnecessarily clunky in places (the author is yet another academic who writes like an academic and needs to read some books on plain language writing) but not the worst I've read. Oddly, Lomolino mentions E.O. Wilson's "biophilia" hypothesis (the supposed human love for living things, more or less) alongside extensive documentation of humankind's opposite actions, beginning with the increasingly well-evidenced Stone Age exterminations of megafaunal species in every location that humans reached in ecologically significant numbers. And of course modern humans are not to be outdone in that regard, with our global-scale obliteration of entire ecosystems and of the Earth's habitable climate. So while "we" may feel some affinity toward living things, not many humans let that get in the way of a fossil-fueled good time. (Nature will come to collect the bill in a few decades.)

One point Lomolina doesn't explore is what would happen to all those rats, goats, pigs, etc. that humans have dumped on islands around the world, and invasive fish introduced to lakes, if humans were to just disappear. Presumably in the absence of further human meddling, all those introduced species would begin evolving in isolation from each other, thus potentially confusing any future alien scientist who studies Earth's biodiversity five million years from now. He, she, or it would have to wonder how every island ended up with its own distinct radiation of rat species, some probably evolving to gigantic sizes.

It's a VSI so it can barely scratch the surface, but I would like to have seen a page about the remarkable fish living in the upper reaches of the Bramaputra River, where it goes by the name Yarlung Tsangpo River (in English; the locals have their own languages). Not many fish can reach those headwaters currently by swimming up the mighty Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon (and jumping up the waterfalls and rapids), so the fish up there in the Himalayas have evolved in isolation for some time. The ones that are there naturally, anyway. Getting to the Galápagos was much easier in Darwin's time, so he figured out evolution there. But he might have been similarly inspired by Himalayan fish, had they been somehow accessible.

[Arend · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating topic, but hampered by many adjectives, jargon, and repetition. I’d hoped for a clearer understanding of the actual questions driving this discipline. The format of VSI didn’t help: world maps at this size in B&W are difficult to interpret.

[Navaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful summary which provides key concepts and themes to the study of biogeography. The case studies also provide excellent and intriguing overview of these concepts

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a solid introduction.

[Ali Mousavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to get start in the subject

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on Audible as it was included in my membership. Only 4 hours or so. I really enjoyed the overview it provided. 5/5 stars

[Miss Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book which provides a solid overview of biogeography and incorporates details on real-world examples.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like the author and almost put down the book after the first chapter. The first chapter, a history of his discipline, is not great, but, when he stops trying to write the history of Biogeography, something he is not great at, and gets into Biogeography itself, he does better.

[Ann Bickle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too advanced for me. I did understand a little!

[Hunter Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting topic. I enjoyed it and very quick read.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting, but not as much as I'd hoped. Other authors in the series added more life to their scientific domains, while this one felt like the author was falling short in that.

[Garreth Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I continue to be impressed by the lives of the great men of science's past discussed in this book but found a lot of the book outside of my interest. The final chapter on human biogeography contains important info. worth returning to.