Island Biogeography Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation

by Whittaker, Robert J.; Fernández-Palacios, José María

• ISBN13: 9780198566113
• ISBN10: 0198566115
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-02-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Island biogeography is the study of the distribution and dynamics of species in island environments. Due to their isolation from more widespread continental species, islands are ideal places for unique species to evolve, but they are also places of concentrated extinction. Not surprisingly, they are widely studied by ecologists, conservationists and evolutionary biologists alike. There is no other recent textbook devoted solely to island biogeography, and a synthesis of the many recent advances is now overdue. This second edition builds on the success and reputation of the first, documenting the recent advances in this exciting field and explaining how islands have been used as natural laboratories in developing and testing ecological and evolutionary theories. In addition, the book describes the main processes of island formation, development and eventual demise, and explains the relevance of island environmental history to island biogeography. The authors demonstrate the huge significance of islands as hotspots of biodiversity, and as places from which disproportionate numbers of species have been extinguished by human action in historical time. Many island species are today threatened with extinction, and this work examines both the chief threats to their persistence and some of the mitigation measures that can be put in play with conservation strategies tailored to islands.

Author Biography

Jose Maria Fernandez-Palacios is Professor of Ecology at La Laguna University, Terierife.

Table of Contents

Islands as natural laboratories	p. 1
The natural laboratory paradigm	p. 3
Island environments	p. 10
The biogeography of island life : biodiversity hotspots in context	p. 46
Island ecology	p. 75
Species numbers games : the macroecology of island biotas	p. 77
Community assembly and dynamics	p. 107
Scale and island ecological theory : towards a new synthesis	p. 145
Island evolution	p. 165
Arrival and change	p. 167
Speciation and the island condition	p. 195
Emergent models of island evolution	p. 208
Islands and conservation	p. 249
Island theory and conservation	p. 251
Anthropogenic losses and threats to island ecosystems	p. 290
Island remedies : the conservation of island ecosystems	p. 323
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