Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The theory of island biogeography was originally used to study oceanic islands, but those concepts can be extrapolated to other areas of study. Island species dynamics give information about how species move and interact within Island Like Systems (ILS). Rather than an actual island, ILS are primarily defined by their isolation within an 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.
The Theory of Island Biogeography is a 1967 book by the ecologist Robert MacArthur and the biologist Edward O. Wilson. [1] It is widely regarded as a seminal work in island biogeography and ecology. The Princeton University Press reprinted the book in 2001 as a part of the "Princeton Landmarks in Biology" series. [1]
The Island Rule is a contested topic in evolutionary biology. Some argue that, since body size is a trait that is affected by multiple factors, and not just by organisms moving to an island, genetic variations across all populations could also cause the body mass differences between mainland and island populations. [12]
A common method is to use quadrats of successively larger size so that the area enclosed by each one includes the area enclosed by the smaller one (i.e. areas are nested). In the first part of the 20th century, plant ecologists often used the species–area curve to estimate the minimum size of a quadrat necessary to adequately characterize a ...
This list includes all islands in the world larger than 1,000 km 2 (390 sq mi). For size and location reference, the four continental landmasses are also shown. Continental landmasses Continental landmasses are not usually classified as islands despite being completely surrounded by water. [Note 1] However, because the definition of continent varies between geographers, the Americas are ...
Size comparison of the giant gymnure (moonrat) Deinogalerix from the Late Miocene of Gargano, Italy, with a European hedgehog. Island gigantism, or insular gigantism, is a biological phenomenon in which the size of an animal species isolated on an island increases dramatically in comparison to its mainland relatives.
Biogeography now incorporates many different fields including but not limited to physical geography, geology, botany and plant biology, zoology, general biology, and modelling. A biogeographer's main focus is on how the environment and humans affect the distribution of species as well as other manifestations of Life such as species or genetic ...