geographical area in which a taxon can be found
Species distribution, or species dispersion, is the manner in which a biological taxon is spatially arranged. The geographic limits of a particular taxon's distribution is its range, often represented as shaded areas โ€ฆ Wikipedia
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Wikipedia
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Species distribution - Wikipedia
December 23, 2025 - Species distribution, or species dispersion, is the manner in which a biological taxon is spatially arranged. The geographic limits of a particular taxon's distribution is its range, often represented as shaded areas on a map.
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Biology LibreTexts
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45.1C: Species Distribution - Biology LibreTexts
November 23, 2024 - Dispersion or distribution patterns show the spatial relationship between members of a population within a habitat. Patterns are often characteristic of a particular species; they depend on local environmental conditions and the speciesโ€™ growth ...
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What is geographic distribution in biology?
In biology, geographic distribution is the natural arrangement of various species or taxa of living organisms in their appropriate habitats on the Earth. The study of geographic distribution of all species, and abiotic factors affecting their distribution is known as biogeography.
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study.com
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Geographic Distribution of Species | Overview & Types - Lesson ...
What are the types of geographic distribution?
There are mainly three types of geographic distribution, namely, cosmopolitan, endemic, and disjunct distribution. Cosmopolitan distribution concerns the occurrence of a species in almost all continents or parts of the world, while the species remain restricted to a particular geographical area is endemic distribution. However, in disjunct distribution, the species having a common ancestor are found in widely separated areas of the world.
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study.com
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Geographic Distribution of Species | Overview & Types - Lesson ...
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Biology Online
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Distribution Definition and Examples - Biology Online Dictionary
July 21, 2021 - Distribution 1. The specific location or arrangement of continuing or successive objects or events in space or time. 2. The extent of a ramifying structure such as an artery or nerve and its branches. 3. The geographical range of an organism or disease. 4. Probability.
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ScienceDirect
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Species Distribution - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
Species distribution is defined as the spatial arrangement of a particular species, which can be analyzed using ecological niche models (ENMs) that compare occurrence data with various biotic, abiotic, and movement covariates to understand factors influencing its distribution.
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Britannica Kids
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ecology: types of population distribution - Students | Britannica Kids | Homework Help
The way a population is spaced across an area is driven largely by food supply and other resources. In uniform distribution, organisms are spread out in a fairly regular pattern. This occurs often where individuals must compete for a limiting resource, such as water or light.
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Lumen Learning
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Biogeography and Species Distribution | Biology for Majors II
Biogeography is the study of the geographic distribution of living things and the abiotic factors that affect their distribution. Abiotic factors such as temperature and rainfall vary based mainly on latitude and elevation. As these abiotic factors change, the composition of plant and animal ...
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Save My Exams
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Distribution - GCSE Biology Definition
June 11, 2025 - In GCSE Biology, 'distribution' refers to the way different species of plants and animals are spread out or arranged in an environment. This can mean looking at where specific organisms are found in a particular area, like a forest or an ocean.
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Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
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Distribution & Occurrence | Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
Species distributions are at the core of all ecological and evolutionary processes, and the assemblage of particular species present in a region affect biological responses/resilience to climate change, storms, and other forces and perturbations. Despite recognition that accelerating invasions ...
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Study.com
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Geographic Distribution of Species | Overview & Types - Lesson | Study.com
March 6, 2025 - Learn about species distribution, species ranges, and review biogeography examples. ... In biology, geographic distribution is the natural arrangement of various species or taxa of living organisms in their appropriate habitats on the Earth.
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R Quebec
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Chapter 6 The distributions of biological data | Workshop 6: Generalized linear models
November 20, 2024 - A distribution provides the probability of observing each possible outcome of an experiment or survey (for example, abundance = 8 Galumna is one such โ€œoutcomeโ€ of a survey). Discrete distributions have a range that only includes integers, while continuous distributions have a range that also includes fractions (the normal distribution is an example of a continuous distribution).
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Fiveable
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Distribution Definition - AP Biology Key Term | Fiveable
Distribution refers to how individuals within a population are spaced within their region. This could be random, uniform/regularly spaced, or...
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Shmoop
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Biology Distribution Patterns - Shmoop Biology
The territory a species lives in is called its distribution, which just means where in the world that species naturally occurs. For example, the distribution of polar bears is the Arctic Circle, and the distribution of koalas is eastern and southern Australia.
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OpenEd CUNY
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Biology 2e, Ecology, Population and Community Ecology, Population Demography | OpenEd CUNY
In addition to measuring simple ... dispersion patterns (or distribution patterns) show the spatial relationship between members of a population within a habitat at a particular ......
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Bio304-class
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Chapter 18 Normal distributions | Biology 304: Biological Data Analysis
August 15, 2023 - Many biological traits can be thought of as being produced by the summation many small effects. Even if those effect have a non-normal distribution, the sum of their effects is approximately normal. Studies of the genetic basis of traits like height or weight, indicate that traits like these ...
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JoVE
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Video: Species Distribution and Biogeography - Concept
... Biogeography is the study of species distribution across geographic space and the processes that shape these distributions. This discipline is based on the assumption that each species within a location must have immigrated from another geographic area or evolved from a local species.
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Fiveable
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Species distributions Definition - General Biology I Key Term | Fiveable
Species distributions refer to the geographic areas where different species are found, influenced by a range of factors including environmental conditions, habitat availability, and interactions with other species. Understanding these distributions is crucial for assessing biodiversity and ...
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Fiveable
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Probability Distributions in Biology | Biostatistics Class Notes | Fiveable
Study guides to review Probability Distributions in Biology. For college students taking Biostatistics.
Top answer
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From the limited context of the quote, it is referring to this definition of distribution (via Merriam-Webster):

a : the position, arrangement, or frequency of occurrence (as of the members of a group) over an area or throughout a space or unit of time

b biology : the natural geographic range of an organism

Or, if that isn't simple enough, it just means where the members of the species are located. In different contexts it may be simply the range, i.e., the space where any individuals of that species are located, or it might actually refer to the density as well.

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Welcome to Biology.SE!

Species distribution is the manner in which a biological taxon is spatially arranged.

In the specific sentence you suggest, it seems that the term species range would have eventually be a little bit more appropriate though. The species range is the delimitation over space where individuals are found. The species range is just the maximum value in every possible direction of your species distribution.

Note however, that we often don't care too much about such semantic details (the sentence sounds correct to me).

Next time, please specify where you get the citation from 1) because context often matter and 2) because it is a copy right issue to not cite your source.


Same as above in simple terms

The term species distribution (and species range) describe the geographical locations of individual of the population (of a species). We are talking about a single species here. The term distribution takes the same definition than it does in statistics if you are used to it.

Imagine you have a population of oak trees. You can position every single individual tree over space Consider the drawing

Each individual is represented by a circle. The blue line represents a river.

Description of the species distribution: There are no individuals south east of the river. There is a clutch of high density at the north west of the study area.

Description of the species range is given by the red circle

The difference between species range and species distribution does not matter much for your purpose. The point is that you understand those terms are concepts describing the geographical locations of individual of the population (or the species if you prefer)