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An ecological island is a term used in New Zealand, and increasingly in Australia, to refer to an area of land (not necessarily an actual island) isolated by natural or artificial means from the surrounding land, [1] where a natural micro-habitat exists amidst a larger differing ecosystem.
Island ecology is the study of island organisms and their interactions with each other and the environment. Islands account for nearly 1/6 of earth’s total land area, [1] yet the ecology of island ecosystems is vastly different from that of mainland communities.
For example, as the area of a series of islands increase, there is a direct relationship to the increasing species richness of primary producers. It is important to consider that island species area relationships will behave somewhat differently than mainland species area relationships, however the connections between the two can still prove to ...
Australia, Melanesia, New Zealand, Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Maluku Islands and the neighbouring islands. The northern boundary of this zone is known as the Wallace Line. Indomalaya: 7.5 2.9 The Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, southern China and most of the Greater Sunda Islands. Oceania: 1.0 0.39
Larger islands with diverse ecological niches encouraged floral and faunal adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species evolved from a common ancestor, each species adapted to a different ecological niche; the various species of Hawaiian honeycreepers (Family Drepanididae) are a classic example. Other adaptations to island ecologies include ...
An example of a keystone species in the North American deserts would be the coyote or mountain lion. These two predators can control the population and distribution of a large number of prey species. A single mountain lion can roam an area of hundreds of kilometers, in which deer, rabbits, and bird species are partly controlled by a predator of ...
Whakaari / White Island, an island reserve. The Department of Conservation and private trusts operate ecological islands as protected habitats for endemic and native New Zealand species. Island reserves include 50 offshore islands that are nature reserves and hundreds of other islands that the Department of Conservation manage. [28]
One example is the rare Torrey pine (Pinus torreyana), which is only native to the coastal bluffs in Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve near San Diego, and off the coast on Santa Rosa Island. [4] Another example is the Tecate Cypress ( Cupressus forbesii ), which only occurs in four stands near the Mexican border of California.