Island Biogeography

Island Biogeography
Island biogeography is a field within biogeography that examines the factors that affect the species
richness of isolated natural communities. The theory was developed to explain species richness of actual
islands. It has since been extended to mountains surrounded by deserts, lakes surrounded by dry land,
fragmented forest and even natural habitats surrounded by human-altered landscapes. Now it is used in
reference to any ecosystem surrounded by unlike ecosystems. The field was started in the 1960s by the
ecologists Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson, who coined the term island biogeography, as this theory
attempted to predict the number of species that would exist on a newly created island.
For biogeographical purposes, an "island" is any area of suitable habitat surrounded by an expanse of
unsuitable habitat. While this may be a traditional island—a mass of land surrounded by water—the term
may also be applied to many untraditional "islands", such as the peaks of mountains, isolated springs in the
desert, or expanses of grassland surrounded by highways or housing tracts. Additionally, what is an island
for one organism may not be an island for another: some organisms located on mountaintops may also be
found in the valleys, while others may be restricted to the peaks.
The theory of island biogeography proposes that the number of species found on an undisturbed island is
determined by immigration and extinction. And further, that the isolated populations may follow
different evolutionary routes, as shown by Darwin's observation of finches in the Galapagos Islands.
Immigration and emigration are affected by the distance of an island from a source of colonists (distance
effect). Usually this source is the mainland, but it can also be other islands. Islands that are more isolated
are less likely to receive immigrants than islands that are less isolated.
The rate of extinction once a species manages to colonize an island is affected by island size (area
effect or the species-area curve). Larger islands contain larger habitat areas and opportunities for more
different varieties of habitat. Larger habitat size reduces the probability of extinction due to chance
events. Habitat heterogeneity increases the number of species that will be successful after immigration.
Over time, the countervailing forces of extinction and immigration result in an equilibrium level of species
richness.
 Degree of isolation (distance to nearest neighbour, and mainland)
 Length of isolation (time)
 Size of island (larger area usually facilitates greater diversity)
 The habitat suitability which includes:
 Climate (tropical versus arctic, humid versus arid, etc.)
 Initial plant and animal composition if previously attached to a larger land mass (e.g.
marsupials, primates)
 The current species composition
 Location relative to ocean currents (influences nutrient, fish, bird, and seed flow patterns)
 Serendipity (the impacts of chance arrivals)
 Human activity
Applications in conservation biology

Within a few years of the publishing of the theory its potential application to the field of conservation
biology had been realised and was being vigorously debated in ecological circles. The idea that reserves
and national parks formed islands inside human-altered landscapes (habitat fragmentation), and that these
reserves could lose species as they 'relaxed towards equilibrium' (that is they would lose species as they
achieved their new equilibrium number, known as ecosystem decay) caused a great deal of concern. This
is particularly true when conserving larger species which tend to have larger ranges. A study by William
Newmark, published in the journal Nature and reported in the New York Times, showed a
strong correlation between the size of a protected U.S. National Park and the number of species of
mammals.
This led to the debate known as single large or several small (SLOSS), described by writer David
Quammen in The Song Of The Dodo as "ecology's own genteel version of trench warfare". In the years
after the publication of Wilson and Simberloff's papers ecologists had found more examples of the species-
area relationship, and conservation planning was taking the view that the one large reserve could hold
more species than several smaller reserves, and that larger reserves should be the norm in reserve design.
This view was in particular championed by Jared Diamond. This led to concern by other ecologists,
including Dan Simberloff, who considered this to be an unproven over-simplification that would damage
conservation efforts. Habitat diversity was as or more important than size in determining the number of
species protected.
Island biogeography theory also led to the development of habitat corridors as a conservation tool to
increase connectivity between habitat islands. Habitat corridors can increase the movement of species
between parks and reserves and therefore increase the number of species that can be supported, but they
can also allow for the spread of disease and pathogens between populations, complicating the simple
proscription of connectivity being good for biodiversity.
In species diversity, island biogeography most describes allopatric speciation. Allopatric speciation is
where new gene pools arise out of natural selection in isolated gene pools. Island Biogeography is also
useful in considering sympatric speciation, the idea of different species arising from one ancestral species
in the same area. Interbreeding between the two differently adapted species would prevent speciation, but
in some species, sympatric speciation appears to have occurred.

Island Biogeography - Some Explanations

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Applications in conservation biology

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