Island Biogeography

Define an island

a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides & fragments of habitat surrounded by other, inhospitable, habitat

The idea of island biogeography was stated by who?

• Robert MacArthur

• E.O. Wilson

What formula did they use?

S = the number of species present

C = the constant that varies with the taxonomic group (y-intercept)

A = Area of island

Lower case z = constant is ~0.3 for most islands (slope)

Log S = log C + z * log A

E.O. Wilson and Daniel Simberloff manipulated a series of mangrove islands in the FL Keys. What exactly did they do and what did they found?

They constructed tents over the island and sprayed extensive amounts of insecticides. ??????

Daniel Simberloff went on to conduct his own experiment. What did he do?

?????

What is the equilibrium Theory of Island Georgraphy?

It is the idea that species richness on any island reflects balance between the colonization of new species and the extinction of existing species

What determines the number of species an island can hold in the equilibrium theory of island georgraphy?

In short, island size and isolation determines the number of species an island can hold

As isolation increases what happens to the number of species?

The number of species decreases

As island size/area increases what happens to the number of species?

The number of species increases

When does species richness/conservation effort thrive?

When size/area is large and is located near other hospitable habitats

Who expanded on the equilibrium theory while looking at mammalian species that persisted on mountaintop habitats throughout the SE U.S.

James Brown?????????

Studies have found the classic ‘island’ colonizers tend to be good at what?

colonizing

What have studies found regarding terrestrial ‘island’ habitats

That they are less successfully colonized in comparison to classic ‘island’ colonizers