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Foster's rule, also known as the island rule or the island effect, is an ecogeographical rule in evolutionary biology stating that members of a species get smaller or bigger depending on the resources available in the environment. For example, it is known that pygmy mammoths evolved from normal mammoths on small islands.
Insular biogeography [1] or island biogeography is a field within biogeography that examines the factors that affect the species richness and diversification of isolated natural communities. The theory was originally developed to explain the pattern of the species–area relationship occurring in oceanic islands.
Thus, island gigantism is usually an evolutionary trend resulting from the removal of constraints on the size of small animals related to predation and/or competition. [5] Such constraints can operate differently depending on the size of the animal, however; for example, while small herbivores may escape predation by hiding, large herbivores ...
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.
Ecologists have proposed a wide range of factors determining the slope and elevation of the species–area relationship. [2] These factors include the relative balance between immigration and extinction, [ 3 ] rate and magnitude of disturbance on small vs. large areas, [ 3 ] predator-prey dynamics, [ 4 ] and clustering of individuals of the ...
One classic scientific model in biogeography posits that a species must continue to colonize new areas through its life cycle (called a taxon cycle) in order to persist. Accordingly, colonisation and extinction are key components of island biogeography, a theory that has many applications in ecology, such as metapopulations. Another factor ...
Bergmann's rule - Penguins on the Earth (mass m, height h) [1] Bergmann's rule is an ecogeographical rule that states that, within a broadly distributed taxonomic clade, populations and species of larger size are found in colder environments, while populations and species of smaller size are found in warmer regions.
The publication of The Theory of Island Biogeography by Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson in 1967 [23] showed that the species richness of an area could be predicted in terms of such factors as habitat area, immigration rate and extinction rate. This added to the long-standing interest in island biogeography.