Island Biogeography

Tag: Island Biogeography

Equilibrium A Distant Dream for Island Bats

Study shows bat biodiversity in the Caribbean will take 8 million years to recover. Once biodiversity is lost, can it be recovered? A paper published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, “Recent Extinctions Disturb Path to Equilibrium Diversity in Caribbean Bats,” by Luis Valente, Rampal S. Etienne, and Liliana M. Dávalos offers helpful new insight into this complex question. The […]

Written by on January 27, 2017

Hawai’i’s Deep Sea Might Help Explain Ecological Paradox

Researchers have returned from a deep-sea expedition hoping to explain why the waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands are so biologically rich. There’s kind of this paradox: How can you have so much productivity around Hawai’i yet the surrounding ocean waters are literally a barren ocean landscape? -Jamison Gove, NOAA oceanographer A research team including scientist from the […]

Written by on October 3, 2016

Notes From the Field: The Isolated Atoll of Palmyra

Island Conservation’s Conservation Biologist Dena Spatz shares her observations from the field on Palmyra Atoll, U.S. Pacific Territory. I am 1,000 miles southwest of Hawaii and over 3,000 miles to the closest continent. I fall asleep to the squeaks of Brown Noddy and White Tern chicks and I wake up to the blow of the trade […]

Written by on September 20, 2016

Island Living Changes Mammals

On islands, small mammals become bigger and large mammals get smaller. Ecosystem make-up and food resources are believed to be the cause of these size-change patterns.  The “Island Rule” describes the change in body size of mammals that migrate to islands: small mammals get bigger, and big mammals get smaller. Why is this? There is […]

Written by on June 17, 2016