 Biogiography. Biogiography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area. Biogiography is the branch of biogiography that studies the distribution of plants. Zogiography is the branch that studies distribution of animals. Knowledge of spatial variation in the numbers and types of organisms is as vital to us today as it was to our early human ancestors, as we adapt to heterogeneous but geographically predictable environments. Biogiography is an integrative field of inquiry that unites concepts and information from ecology, evolutionary biology, geology, and physical geography. Biogiographic research combines information and ideas from many fields, from the physiological and ecological constraints on organismal dispersal to geological and climatological phenomena operating at global spatial scales and evolutionary timeframes. The short-term interactions within a habitat and species of organisms describe the ecological application of biogiography. Historical biogiography describes the long-term, evolutionary periods of time for broader classifications of organisms. Early scientists, beginning with Carl Linneas, contributed to the development of biogiography as a science. Beginning in the mid-18th century, Europeans explored the world and discovered the biodiversity of life. The scientific theory of biogiography grows out of the work of Alexander von Humboldt 1769-1859 Hewitt Cottrell Watson 1804-1881 Alphonse D. Kondall 1806-1893 Alfred Russel Wallace 1823-1913 Phillip Lee Sclatter 1829-1913 and other biologists and explorers