The integration of perspectives over broad spatial and long temporal scales into the study of ecology (Brown and Maurer (1989) Science, 243). Macroecology has moved from the absolute advocacy of small-scale over large-scale studies to an advocacy of some large scales in preference to others; Blackburn and Gaston (2002) Glob. Change & Biogeog. 11, 3 argue that there is no general sense in which one scale of study is better than any other. Although macroecology arose from geographical ecology, it has diverted from a geographical perspective. Ruggiero and Hawkins (2006) Glob. Change & Biogeog. 15, 5 argue that present trends in macroecology adopt a predominantly statistical approach to looking for rules and regularities ‘that increasingly ignore the spatial distributional aspects linked to mapping. ‘In a vigorous reply, Blackburn and Gaston, 2006 [J. Animal Ecol. 75], stressed that there is much more to macroecology than mapping, and emphasized that ‘macroecological patterns will only be elucidated effectively through the formulation of relevant hypotheses and related statistical approaches’ (Kent (2007) PPG 31, 6).