In Geology, a deposit of ore can be in a seam or dispersed. Life, also, can be variably sized, vital or fragile in it’s place, populous or not, and, life can be found dispersed across vast territory, or, in highly concentrated populations of species in scenarios of symbiosis and parasitism which denote balance or imbalance in the habitat scenario. Insular Biogeography, then, is the nature of populations that can be found variably in concentrated numbers, isolated, dispersed or proximal to other populations on “Islands” like Hawaii, Galapagos, the Alpine Kilamanjaro, an ocean trench, a continent, subcontinent, range, or riverine ecosystem. Populations, and individuals of all species, exhibit various vital functions like fecundity, avian fledge rate, and mortality. Cartography, and the “Coordinates of Life” is therefore the quantification of life function amongst individuals and populations of individuals which live and die in habitat having it’s own descriptors of viability, sustainability, carrying capacity, and proximity to other life found in nearby or distant places. More than ever in the history of the world; propagules of species are mobilized to traverse land and sea previously insurmountable to them. The transportation sector capacitates this and continues to advance. A Connecticut example of population mobility and success rates is the Gypsy Moth. In Post Bellum Civil War years, Etoinnne Leuopold Trouvelot brought Lymantria dispar to Massachusetts hoping to make silk ties for men to wear with Oxford cotton cloth shirts. Forest Mensuration to this day is demonstrative of defoliation due to these insects. Similarly, the Cook expedition brought Felis domesticus and Wild Boar to Hawaii. And, transported in ship bilges; the Zebra Mussel clogs port machinery and persists as a serious problem. The idea of “Coordinates of Life” is therefore exemplified by valid USDA tracking of Bovine diseases, or, the USFS responsibility to monitor Loblolly Pine parasites and mycology so that the telephone pole species dominant in electrical infrastructure does not meet the fate of the American Ash tree; extirpated in North America by the invasive Chinese insect “Emerald Ash Borer”. Let’s not forget COVID, H5N1, and BSE, which brought great troubles to human, poultry, and cattle populations. So, if it is sagittal, coronal, transverse, longitudinal, latitudinal, or altitudinal, there are descriptors of individuals and populations in illness and in health and these things can all be mapped in terms of systems like MRI or GIS, and in combinations of those systematic methods.
