The Bases for Temperature Zonation in Geographical Distribution

Zonation, as the term is employed here, refers to the limited north-south distributions which characterize most species. It is well known that these restricted distributions are to be interpreted largely or wholely in terms of temperature. In this contribution an attempt will be made to bring together the main points of our understanding of the relations between zonation and temperature, and to outline the system of logical generalizations which appear to follow from that knowledge. Attention will be confined to the fundamentals of the problem, leaving for a later discussion various matters of detail commonly encountered in particular cases.