Climate and Taxonomy

Life on Earth is not arranged in still, tidy categories—it is in motion. Species appear, diverge, migrate, disappear, and reassemble in new forms across shifting climates and changing landscapes. What we call “taxonomy” is often presented as a stable map of this diversity, but in reality it is a snapshot taken from a moving system.
Climate is one of the least visible yet most powerful forces behind this movement. It does not simply influence where organisms live; it shapes how they evolve, how they separate into new species, and how entire branches of life vanish or expand. From the frozen edges of polar seas to the dense complexity of tropical forests, from isolated lakes to deep ocean currents, climate silently organizes the conditions under which biodiversity emerges and is reorganized.
This book explores the deep connection between climate and taxonomy—not as separate disciplines, but as intertwined narratives of change. It traces how ice ages split populations apart, how warming oceans redraw the boundaries of marine life, how freshwater systems generate bursts of speciation in isolation, and how modern climate change is accelerating processes that once unfolded over millennia.
At its core, this is a study of patterns: how life responds when its environment shifts, and how those responses become encoded in the way we classify the natural world. It is also a reminder that every taxonomic category carries within it a history of climate, disturbance, and adaptation.
To understand taxonomy, then, is to read the story of climate written in living systems.