Where are the roads running? That could be a brief definition of Biogeography, Biogeographers and of the questions they have to answer.

Biogeography and the rest of the world

The science of Biogeography is somehow different from the other branches of Physical Geography. That means everything in the world of living creatures is a complicate network of main and derivated routes, of expantions and withdrawals along the ceaseless stream of time.
In Geomorphology, Climatology, Hydrology,etc the items are somehow simply implemented at a zonal or regional level. If you have there a type of climate, and / or a certain type of substratum, you will almost necessarily have a type of abiotic frame. But with the living things there are some important and complicate differences. Indeed, we have the well known types of zonal biogeographical features but since the type of information which rules life is an extremely complicated one - the genetic code - the simple combinations of zonal and regional factors cannot make it appears in a particular place simply out of the blue. Therefore the living things have to make their existence and history by moving step by step across the continents and oceans, looking for better places to breed and perpetuate their genetic inheritance.
As we are and will be forever. The pieces of what we name humankind.

The struggle for understanding

When you will study some books or articles written by biogeographers - I mean true biogeographers, not biologists or geographers of another formation who from time to time believe that biogeography is a kind of naive and narrative domain everyone can deal with - you will realize soon that the main problem is the route, the "road" followed by the biotic information concentrated in the groups of individuals - populations, metapopulations, species. Only the scale of time and space differs considerably. All the biotic processes in a geographical context have their own development following particular roads across time and space. H Biogeographers and H Biogeography (H is from "Historical") are interested in the development of biotic processes through the geological time. E Biogeographers and E Biogeography (E from "Ecological" - but this doesn't imply a sinonimy with Ecology !) are involved with desciphering the actual processes of biota in a geographical perspective.
And everywhere are unknown fascinating things, everywhere roads to be investigated, doesn't matter what aspect is studied.
Therefore we try to see everytime where are the roads running...
Not for finding an answer. This is too far beyond our possibilities and will be so everytime. But for the shudder of the moment when you have the chance to find a new piece of the wonders that surround us, were created for us and from where we came once. And to find what chances are to keep them with us.

Biodiversity and Metapopulations - two main problems of E Biogeography

Biodiversity is a term frequently used in vain and without a precise meaning by many biologists and geographers. Ask some of these persons about the sense of this word and you will have a surprise in many cases. Actually, many persons which don't have connections with Biogeography believe that biodiversity is simply provided by the number of species contained by a certain area. But in fact this is only a small part of what Biodiversity means. Cause this today's so used term means an entire collection of parameters refering to very different aspects which can be measured more or less precisely.
We will learn about what Biodiversity really is, cause a modern geographer should know some basic things about this important aspect of the living world. You will find that there are alpha, beta, gamma and epsilon biodiversity, and that the simple species richness (parameter S) is only one of the three components of "alpha" and even this S can be subdivided in parameters with a very different meaning.
While learning how to calculate and understand biodiversity's components, we will make use of some computer programs.
Indeed, biodiversity conservation and management is a true and hard problem of our world and of Romania as well. We destroy the variety of our landscapes by replacing the native species with weeds, our "shadow" which follow us everywhere. And there will be a time when the same species of ruderals will live here as well as near the Equator or round the polar regions of the planet. Andrej Voznesensky, a Russian poet, artistically described this in his "An answer during a discussion about Ecology": The evilness, how fast it spreads / You see this and feel the shudder / We will not be here to see everything / Thank you, God, that we are mortals. // You contemplate with love sometimes /the brave studs of blueflowers / we're blessed that we will not crush all of them / Oh, God, thank you that we are mortals.

Metapopulation Theory is a forefront domain of E Biogeography started with the milestone book "Island Biogeography", written in 1967 by the famous americans McArthur and Wilson (even if the term "metapopulation" was nor used in this book and was de facto created two years later by another biogeographer, Levins).
What is a Metapopulation? The totality of the populations belonging to a species from a certain region. The dynamic of the metapopulational system and the interaction between the metapopulational systems of different species make the most delicious exam topics for our students in Environmental Sciences (second year). But the top E Biogeographers of the world deal with this problem which is extremely important for the preservation of the biotic structures in a regional context.

Speciation and the origin of biotic communities - the top problems of H Biogeography. And more sensitive... the subject of our species

Speciation is the process involving the rising of the new species. It has a profound geographical meaning and is certainly the main topic of Evolutionary Science which is strongly connected with H Biogeography. Extinction, the complementary process, plays also an extremely important role in the historical development of the living world. But there are many, many other problems to discuss...

The most sensitive problem, especially for the most religious persons is the origin of the human species. We really had some troubles with some of our students from time to time. However, everybody can see today that the architecture of the human body is too closely related with that of the other vertebrates and this is a clear evidence for our origins and the reality of evolution. The true controversial problem that remained is the origin of the human mind, the origin of our conscience, of our thoughts. Is this also the result of evolution or is it the result of a supervised, created evolution? And be aware of this, the best scientists who tried and try to find our origins are not atheists.
So, the question is now about what was and what is and will be our destiny. Where is our road running.

the true land / from where we come / is like a snow / coming from the clear sky // the true land from where we come / is moving / like the wind through the clouds / as the shadow weaving / bone traces in flowers (P. Rugu).

The origin of biotic communities is a rather different and more difficult problem. This implies the study of the mechanisms which built up the areas of the different species and from this of the different communities they make.
You will become accomodated with the theories of Vicariance, Jump Dispersal and the methodologies of Cladistics and Area Cladistics at the courses and lab works (including the use of an appropriate software)

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