The term Biogeography comes from bios = life, geos = earth, and graphein: to write, to draw.

Biogeography, geography of the living, can be understood in the limited sense of phyto- and zoogeography, concerning only plant and animal distribution. This is the conception of life and natural sciences.

But Biogeography, considered as a geography of the living in a wider sense, is also a “Geography of the Biosphere “ (Rougerie, Gabriel. Géographie de la Biosphère. A. Colin Ed., Paris, 1988).

In that sense, the question is the study of life’s phenomenons and spatial distribution. On the other hand, speaking about life is speaking about movement, evolution, dynamics, rhythms and temporal scales.

Furthermore, geography can be seen as constituting a bridge between Nature and Man. So geography of the living, or Biogeography in a broader sense, is largely concerned with the interrelationship between human groups and their environment ("la prise en compte des interrelations entre les groupes humains et leurs milieux de vie" -Rougerie, op.cit.).

From that point of view, Biogeography constitutes an archetypal geographical discipline. It is closely related to physical geography AND human geography and history, exploring both physical environments and human group distribution and activities, inside these environments. Observing the relationship between man and his environment (his « milieu de vie »), is specifically relevant through the study of landscape at all scales, from global to local observational ones. On the global scale, natural vegetal landscapes are the result of:
  past time circumstances of earth history (earth’s crust movements, living beings evolution)
  current geography of emerged lands
  actual conditions of vegetation development (soils, climates, anthropic activities).

At various scales, throughout matter and energy exchanges, interrelationship between natural milieux (via the rocks, soils, biocenoses, air and water) and man, occurs in the frame of natural systems, called « GEOSYSTEMS » (Rougerie G., Beroutchachvilly N., 1991. Géosystèmes et paysages. Bilan et méthodes. A. Colin ed., Paris, 1991).

From the tropical rain forest to the cold deserts, a whole vision of the vast vegetal landscapes on the planet gives an idea of the immense diversity of life’s manifestations on Earth.

The matching up of the meridian disturbances of zonality affecting the vegetal landscapes, with geographical climate irregularities, allows an approach of global life on earth, which leads to understand how human life, through that of plants and animals, depends on such fundamental phenomenons.

Seasonal rhythm variation according to the latitude, thermic opposition between the equator and higher latitudes, rhythmic contrasts within each region (climatic conditions, seasons), dichotomy between warm deserts and humid zones and between low and high altitudes..., all these elements draw together an overall framework of the highly varied environments where life can develop, i.e. almost the earth entire expanse.

Linked with the distribution of man and his "modes de vie" (ways of life), these general elements lead to estimate the high diversity of life’s manifestation on earth, as well as the gap existing between the western society and many others.