Geobotany

Geobotany, or phytogeography, or plant geography, is the "science of vegetation" which studies the relationship between plant life and the terrestrial environment, or, in other words, "the science that studies the habitat of plants on the earth's surface". It also studies the distribution of plants on the earth's surface. Earth, analyzes its distribution areas and its characteristics as well as the causes that condition them and the laws to which they respond.

Rübel (1922) created the term because it did not coincide with the meanings of botanical geography or ecology, since its meaning is much broader; thus, Huguet del Villar (1929) divided geobotany into synecology, phytoecology (botanical ecology), and phytogeography (botanical geography).

Today we can group synecology and phytoecology, in phytosociology, which studies plant associations.

Wiegleb (1989) defined geobotany as "the science whose objectives are the description, interpretation and prediction of types of distribution of populations and plant taxa in space and time" #34;.

Etymology

Of geo, earth and botany, study of plants.

Definition

Phytogeography is defined as a branch of biogeography, and this in turn incorporates elements of biology and geography. It accounts for the relationship between plant life and the terrestrial environment or the science that studies the habitat of plants on the earth's surface. This science has a double direction, the first is the possibility of studying, on the one hand, the structure and biology of a plant layer, and on the other hand, it can study the species that constitute the plant population of a type of vegetation or a certain territory.

It is important to know and distinguish the main differences that exist between flora and vegetation. Flora refers to the species and their respective taxonomic description of the individuals that make up the vegetation.

Vegetation, on the other hand, refers to the result of current causes, whether geographical or biological, and in turn encompasses physiognomic forms of plant population. Therefore, vegetation corresponds to the set resulting from the arrangement in space of the different plant types present in a certain portion of the territory.

Among the characteristics that vegetation has in its relationship with the geography of a place, it is worth highlighting:

• Basic assimilator of solar energy and therefore primary producer.
• It corresponds to the base of any ecosystem.
• It is unique since it can provide food and sustenance to itself from abiotic factors such as solar energy.
• It allows to establish the relationship between the biotic and abiotic components.
• Stabilizes the slopes.
• It allows the damping, protection and infiltration of precipitation.
• It reduces superficial drainage.
• It retains rainfall at the level of the herbal folder.
• Holds the humidity.
• It is a component of the evapoperspiration process.
• It regulates temperatures.
• Habitat of the fauna.

Fundamental objectives of geobotany

• Composition, structure and spatial distribution (structural and anatomical geobotics of vegetation), both in its quantitative and qualitative aspects.
• Function, productivity, biogeochemical cycles (functional geobotics).
• Mesological factors: climate, soil, etc. (Ecology).
• Succession and ontogeny (Sindynamics).
• Origin, history and transformations (Paleogeobotany, Epiontology).
• Territorial distribution (Biogeography or Corology).
• Classification and management of plant communities.

Integration with other disciplines

• Biostatistics,
• Biogeography,
• Botanical,
• Ecology,
• Edafology,
• Physical Geography,
• Geology,
• Human Geography, etc.

Practical applications in other fields

• Agriculture,
• Fight against erosion,
• Praticulture,
• Forestry,
• Order of the territory,
• Valuation of natural heritage, etc.