Plant Geography and the First Biomonitoring Effort

Alexander von Humbolt

In trying to understand the unifying principals of nature, Alexander von Humbolt founded a new science called "plant geography" based on his extensive studies of plants on volcanoes in South America.  Over 200 years ago, he was the first person to realize and document that mountains provide a vertical laboratory that is ideal for studying the influence of a host of physical factors on plants - factors including altitude, atmosphere, rainfall and soil type.  In doing so Humbolt helped us to recognize why different plants grow where they do - for example evergreen pines and hemlocks grow in different conditions from those that support broadleaf trees.  Over the next 150 years scientists would document the specific environmental requirements of plants and animals providing the background information needed for biomonitoring as a science.

 

Alexander von Humbold and Aimee Bonpland at the foot of Chimborozo

Friedrich Georg Weitsch circa 1810

Photo reproduced from 1999-2000 Kunst und Ausstellungshalle Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

www2.kah-bonn.de/ausstellungen/humboldt/02e.htm

Humbolt also realized that the distribution of agricultural crops in landscapes is part of this what was then in 1800 an undescribed pattern in nature.  He meticulously documented the relationship between climate, geography, agricultural practices and cultural norms in Cuba and Mexico recognizing that human culture is an important part of the picture if we want to understand the underlying principles behind the distribution of organisms.   He helped us to see that our own agricultural practices - the location of orchards and fields, the distribution of temperate adapted fruit species like apples even in the tropics - are based on our own trial and error experience in growing crops.  He went beyond this by helping us to see that if we are perceptive, we can use the underlying principles behind success in plant and animal growth to predict where plants and animals should be able to grow.   In fact because we are tied to food, agricultural practices may be one of the best ways to help people to understand the principles behind the science of biomonitoring.   The influence of human history on landscapes is inescapable if we wish to understand the principles behind the unifying principles of nature.

Dennis J. Taylor

taylordj at hiram.edu

last updated 28 November 2007