The silence of biogeography

Modern biogeography now encompasses an impressive diversity of patterns and phenomena of the geography of nature, providing insights fundamental to understanding the forces influencing the spatial and temporal dynamics of biological diversity. However, rather than praise our discipline for its great breadth of visions, our purpose here is to point out our glaring oversight of a potentially transformative frontier in the geography of nature. A new, emerging area called soundscape ecology, if guided by the principles of biogeography, holds the promise of opening the ears' of our field and providing fresh perspectives on fundamental problems being addressed by biogeographers.