How does biogeography explain the geographic ranges of species?

Biogeography explains the geographic ranges of species by examining the interplay between historical factors and current environmental conditions. Rather than being determined by a single cause, a species' distribution is the result of complex interactions over both ecological and geologic time.12

Key factors influencing these ranges include:

• Environmental Conditions: Species are limited by their ability to adapt to physical parameters such as climate, temperature, and terrain. While similar environments (biomes) can support ecologically equivalent species, a species' actual range is often smaller than its potential range due to biological constraints like competition and predation.1345
• Geologic History: Processes such as plate tectonics and continental drift have historically reshaped landmasses and ocean basins, creating barriers or corridors for dispersal and driving evolutionary change.326
• Dispersal and Evolution: The rate at which a species disperses, its age, and its evolutionary history determine its current extent. For instance, marine organisms with a bipartite life cycle often utilize larval phases to disperse across vast distances.12
• Island Biogeography: The theory of island biogeography further explains distribution by showing that species richness is influenced by an area's size and its distance from colonization sources.7