Argentine phytogeography according to Joaquín Frenguelli and Ángel Lulio Cabrera and the prevalence of a historical biogeographic perspective

• Main Authors: Katinas, Liliana, Guerrero, Elián Leandro, Dosil Hiriart, Florencia Débora
• Other Authors: Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de La Plata
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo - Universidad Nacional de La Plata 2022
• Subjects: Biology; Biogeography; History of science; Regionalization; Revista del Museo de La Plata; Ecological biogeography; Historical biogeography; Botanica; Biogeografia; Regionalización; Argentina; Biogeografía ecológica; Biogeografía histórica; Biología; Biogeografía; Historia de la Ciencia; Regionalização; História da ciência; Biogeografia ecológica; Biogeografia histórica; Argentine; Tundra
• Online Access: https://publicaciones.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar/rmlp/article/view/2448; https://doi.org/10.24215/25456377e159

Biogeography, the study of the distribution of living beings, includes topics of Geology, Geography, and Biology, and therefore encompasses many 'schools' or sub-disciplines. Some sub-disciplines aim to regionalize, that is, to analyze the distribution of organisms on Earth to find patterns or coincident areas of distribution with a hierarchical organization. Phytogeography, for example, analyzes the distribution patterns of plants. The multiplicity of biogeographic sub-disciplines can be recognized in two traditions, Ecological biogeography and Historical biogeography. The ecological criterium applied to the regionalizations is represented, for example, in maps of biomes (e.g., tropical forest, desert, tundra) and their smaller units, ecoregions. Historical criteria are applied when establishing, for instance, phytogeographic province maps. Biogeographic regionalizations have experienced great development from the end of the 19th century until today. The journal Revista del Museo de La Plata was not excluded from this extraordinary development, and included among its works the regionalizations of Joaquín Frenguelli in 1940 and Ángel Lulio Cabrera in 1953, two contemporary naturalists with differing visions of Argentine phytogeography, i.e. ecological and historical viewpoints, respectively. According to Frenguelli, the starting point for regionalization is geography (physiognomy of the area and main vegetal forms that occupy each area), and the final point is the recognition of the taxa inhabiting each phytogeographic unit. According to Cabrera, it is essential to start with the taxonomic analysis of plant species, which will help defining the areas, and then consider the geography as a whole. Ultimately, it was Cabrera's historical approach that had the greatest influence on the subsequent regionalization schemes made in our country. La Biogeografía, el estudio de la distribución de los animales y las plantas, incluye temáticas de la Geología, la Geografía y la Biología y por lo tanto comprende muchas ...