The equilibrium theory of island biogeography : fact or fiction?

The development of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography and its basic concepts are outlined. Studies purporting to validate the theory are critically examined, and it is concluded that there is little support for its tenets. The application of the theory to nature conservation and ecology is therefore premature.

[1]  R. Levins,et al.  Trophic Structure Stability and Faunal Change during Recolonization , 1972 .

[2]  S. Stearns.  Life-History Tactics: A Review of the Ideas , 1976, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[3]  F. Vuilleumier.  Insular Biogeography in Continental Regions. II. Cave Faunas from Tessin, Southern Switzerland , 1973 .

[4]  Karl R. Popper.  The Logic of Scientific Discovery. , 1977 .

[5]  Paul. Slud.  Geographic and climatic relationships of avifaunas with special reference to comparative distribution in the neotropics , 1976 .

[6]  E. A. Driver.  Chironomid communities in small prairie ponds: some characteristics and controls , 1977 .

[7]  J. Heller.  The Biogeography of Enid Landsnails on the Aegean Islands , 1976 .

[8]  K. Flessa.  Area, Continental Drift and Mammalian Diversity , 1975, Paleobiology.

[9]  J. Lawton,et al.  Effects of plant type, size of geographical range and taxonomic isolation on number of insect species associated with British plants , 1977, Nature.

[10]  D. Lack.  THE NUMBERS OF SPECIES OF HUMMINGBIRDS IN THE WEST INDIES , 1973, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[11]  E. Williams.  The Ecology of Colonization as Seen in the Zoogeography of Anoline Lizards on Small Islands. , 1969, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[12]  D. Strong,et al.  Nonasymptotic species richness models and the insects of british trees. , 1974, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[13]  Edward O. Wilson,et al.  Experimental Zoogeography of Islands: Defaunation and Monitoring Techniques , 1969 .

[14]  D. Simberloff,et al.  Island Biogeography Theory and Conservation Practice , 1976, Science.

[15]  D. Strong.  Biogeographic Dynamics of Insect-Host Plant Communities , 1979 .

[16]  J. Terborgh.  Preservation of Natural Diversity: The Problem of Extinction Prone Species , 1974 .

[17]  R. Levins,et al.  Biogeography of the Puerto Rican Bank: Species-Turnover on a Small Cay, Cayo Ahogado , 1973 .

[18]  B. Wallace.  THE BIOGEOGRAPHY OF LABORATORY ISLANDS , 1975, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[19]  K. Crowell.  Experimental Zoogeography: Introductions of Mice to Small Islands , 1973, The American Naturalist.

[20]  B. Davis.  [Analysis of environmental gradient and community of forest-swamp ecotone in Changbai mountains]. , 1975 .

[21]  I. Rubinoff,et al.  THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL OF INSULAR VARIATION IN BIRD SPECIES ABUNDANCE. , 1964, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[22]  Daniel Simberloff,et al.  Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography and Ecology , 1974 .

[23]  E. McCoy,et al.  Application of Island Biogeographic Theory to Pests of Cultivated Crops , 1979 .

[24]  H. Lassen.  The diversity of freshwater snails in view of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography , 1975, Oecologia.

[25]  R. Whitcomb,et al.  Island biogeography and 'Habitat Islands' of eastern forest. III. Long-term turnover and effects of selective logging on the avifauna of forest fragments , 1977 .

[26]  R. Beaver.  NON-EQUILIBRIUM 'ISLAND' COMMUNITIES: DIPTERA BREEDING IN DEAD SNAILS , 1977 .

[27]  N. K. Johnson.  CONTROLS OF NUMBER OF BIRD SPECIES ON MONTANE ISLANDS IN THE GREAT BASIN , 1975, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[28]  Nils Chr. Stenseth,et al.  Where have all the species gone? On the nature of extinction and the Red Queen Hypothesis , 1979 .

[29]  G. Hunt,et al.  Trophic Levels and Turnover Rates: The Avifauna of Santa Barbara Island, California , 1974 .

[30]  J. Lynch,et al.  Turnover and Equilibria in Insular Avifaunas, with Special Reference to the California Channel Islands , 1974 .

[31]  E. Mayr.  Avifauna: Turnover on Islands , 1965, Science.

[32]  J. Terborgh.  CHANCE, HABITAT AND DISPERSAL IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS IN THE WEST INDIES , 1973, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[33]  A. Tansley.  The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms , 1935 .

[34]  M. Claridge,et al.  British Insects and Trees: A Study in Island Biogeography or Insect/Plant Coevolution? , 1978, American Naturalist.

[35]  H. L. Jones,et al.  Short-Time-Base Studies of Turnover in Breeding Bird Populations on the California Channel Islands , 1976 .

[36]  R. Macarthur,et al.  AN EQUILIBRIUM THEORY OF INSULAR ZOOGEOGRAPHY , 1963 .

[37]  J. Faaborg.  Qualitative Patterns of Avian Extinction on Neotropical Land-Bridge Islands: Lessons for Conservation , 1979 .

[38]  J. Cairns,et al.  The Relationship of Fresh-Water Protozoan Communities to the MacArthur-Wilson Equilibrium Model , 1969, The American Naturalist.

[39]  P. Holland.  Species turnover in deciduous forest vegetation , 1978, Vegetatio.

[40]  P. Moore.  Species richness in geological time , 1974, Nature.

[41]  M. Soulé,et al.  Benign neglect: A model of faunal collapse in the game reserves of East Africa , 1979 .

[42]  T. Schoener,et al.  Inverse relation of survival of lizards with island size and avifaunal richness , 1978, Nature.

[43]  L. G. Abele,et al.  The Size of Coral Heads and the Community Biology of Associated Decapod Crustaceans , 1976 .

[44]  B. O’connor,et al.  Insular biogeography: of mice and mites , 1975, Science.

[45]  F. Vuilleumier.  Insular Biogeography in Continental Regions. I. The Northern Andes of South America , 1970, The American Naturalist.

[46]  J. Lawton,et al.  Species Richness of Parasites on Hosts: Agromyzid Flies on the British Umbelliferae , 1979 .

[47]  J. Diamond,et al.  Distributional ecology of new hebridean birds a species kaleidoscope , 1977 .

[48]  R. Fisher,et al.  The Relation Between the Number of Species and the Number of Individuals in a Random Sample of an Animal Population , 1943 .

[49]  J. Jaenike.  Effect of island area on Drosophila population densities , 2004, Oecologia.

[50]  J. Diamond,et al.  Overexploitation, Interference Competition, and Excess Density Compensation in Insular Faunas , 1979, The American Naturalist.

[51]  P. Opler.  Oaks as evolutionary islands for leaf-mining insects , 1974 .

[52]  L. Harris,et al.  Isolation and extirpations in wildlife reserves , 1977 .

[53]  Andrew T. Smith.  THE DISTRIBUTION AND DISPERSAL OF PIKAS: CONSEQUENCES OF INSULAR POPULATION STRUCTURE' , 1974 .

[54]  D. Lack.  Population Changes in the Land Birds of a Small Island , 1969 .

[55]  W. Platt.  The Colonization and Formation of Equilibrium Plant Species Associations on Badger Disturbances in a Tall-Grass Prairie , 1975 .

[56]  Earl D. McCoy,et al.  The Statistics and Biology of the Species-Area Relationship , 1979, The American Naturalist.

[57]  Daniel Simberloff,et al.  EXPERIMENTAL ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF ISLANDS: A MODEL FOR INSULAR COLONIZATION , 1969 .

[58]  N. E. Armstrong,et al.  Environmental Determination of Insular Variation in Bird Species Abundance in the Gulf of Guinea , 1965, Nature.

[59]  J. Diamond,et al.  Ecology and Evolution of Communities , 1976, Nature.

[60]  N. Moore,et al.  On the number of bird species in British woods , 1975 .

[61]  Richard F. Harner,et al.  The Role of Area, Heterogeneity, and Favorability in Plant Species Diversity of Pinyon‐Juniper Ecosystems , 1976 .

[62]  H. Heatwole.  Biogeography of Reptiles on some of the Islands and Cays of Eastern Papua--New Guinea , 1975 .

[63]  B. Wilcox.  Supersaturated Island Faunas: A Species-Age Relationship for Lizards on Post-Pleistocene Land-Bridge Islands , 1978, Science.

[64]  N. K. Johnson.  Origin and Differentiation of the Avifauna of the Channel Islands, California , 1972 .

[65]  D. Janzen.  Host Plants as Islands in Evolutionary and Contemporary Time , 1968, The American Naturalist.

[66]  R. Howe,et al.  SPECIES‐AREA RELATIONS OF BIRDS ON SMALL ISLANDS IN A MINNESOTA LAKE , 1979, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[67]  Jason A. Lillegraven,et al.  ORDINAL AND FAMILIAL DIVERSITY OF CENOZOIC MAMMALS , 1972 .

[68]  A. Schoener.  Experimental Zoogeography: Colonization of Marine Mini-Islands , 1974, The American Naturalist.

[69]  F. W. Preston.  The Canonical Distribution of Commonness and Rarity: Part I , 1962 .

[70]  P. D. Kilburn.  Analysis of the Species‐Area Relation , 1966 .

[71]  J. Sepkoski,et al.  Distribution of Freshwater Mussels: Coastal Rivers as Biogeographic Islands , 1974 .

[72]  J. Diamond,et al.  Birds on islands in the sky: Origin of the montane avifauna of Northern Melanesia. , 1976, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[73]  J. Diamond,et al.  Species-distance relation for birds of the Solomon Archipelago, and the paradox of the great speciators. , 1976, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[74]  H. Birks.  British Trees and Insects: A Test of the Time Hypothesis Over the Last 13,000 Years , 1980, The American Naturalist.

[75]  D. Simberloff,et al.  Environmental Determinants of Island Species Numbers in the British Isles , 1974 .

[76]  D. Levin,et al.  Species richness of the parasitic fungi of british trees. , 1975, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[77]  James H. Brown,et al.  Turnover Rates in Insular Biogeography: Effect of Immigration on Extinction , 1977 .

[78]  C. S. Robbins,et al.  [Rebuttal to article by J.M. Diamond] Island biogeography and conservation: Strategy and limitations , 1976 .

[79]  J. Diamond,et al.  Biogeographic kinetics: estimation of relaxation times for avifaunas of southwest pacific islands. , 1972, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[80]  P. Raven,et al.  Species Number and Endemism: The Gal�pagos Archipelago Revisited , 1973, Science.

[81]  S. Webb.  EXTINCTION‐ORIGINATION EQUILIBRIA IN LATE CENOZOIC LAND MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA , 1969, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[82]  Daniel Simberloff,et al.  Species Number and Compositional Similarity of the Galapagos Flora and Avifauna , 1978 .

[83]  Jared M. Diamond,et al.  THE ISLAND DILEMMA: LESSONS OF MODERN BIOGEOGRAPHIC STUDIES FOR THE DESIGN OF NATURAL RESERVES , 1975 .

[84]  P. Regal,et al.  The Peninsular Effect on Species Diversity and the Biogeography of Baja California , 1978, The American Naturalist.

[85]  J. Diamond,et al.  Species Turnover Rates on Islands: Dependence on Census Interval , 1977, Science.

[86]  I. Abbott.  Factors determining the number of land bird species on Islands around South-Western Australia , 2004, Oecologia.

[87]  M. Goren.  Succession of benthic community on artificial substratum at Elat (Red Sea) , 1979 .

[88]  P. Grant.  A Review of the Avifauna of the Tres Marias Islands, Nayarit, Mexico , 1964 .

[89]  R. Seifert.  Clumps of Heliconia Inflorescences as Ecological Islands , 1975 .

[90]  D. Culver,et al.  TOWARD A PREDICTIVE CAVE BIOGEOGRAPHY: THE GREENBRIER VALLEY AS A CASE STUDY , 1973, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[91]  T. Case.  Species Numbers, Density Compensation, and Colonizing Ability of Lizards on Islands in the Gulf of California , 1975 .

[92]  James H. Brown.  Mammals on Mountaintops: Nonequilibrium Insular Biogeography , 1971, The American Naturalist.

[93]  D. Dauer,et al.  Repopulation of the polychaete fauna of an intertidal habitat following natural defaunation: Species equilibrium , 1976, Oecologia.

[94]  R. Patrick.  The effect of invasion rate, species pool, and size of area on the structure of the diatom community. , 1967, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[95]  H. Wolda,et al.  DIVERSITY OF INSECT FAUNAS , 1977 .

[96]  B. Simpson.  Glacial Migrations of Plants: Island Biogeographical Evidence , 1974, Science.

[97]  O. Järvinen,et al.  Dynamics of Protected Bird Communities in a Finnish Archipelago , 1977 .

[98]  M. Shaffer,et al.  Biogeography of the Megazoo , 1975, Science.

[99]  J. Terborgh,et al.  Turnover and Ecological Release in the Avifauna of Mona Island, Puerto Rico , 1973 .

[100]  J. Diamond,et al.  Species-area relation for birds of the Solomon Archipelago. , 1976, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[101]  R. Selander,et al.  House Sparrows: Rapid Evolution of Races in North America , 1964, Science.

[102]  D. Janzen.  Host Plants as Islands. II. Competition in Evolutionary and Contemporary Time , 1973, The American Naturalist.

[103]  Zhifeng Yang,et al.  [Temporal-spatial scale characteristic of wetland ecosystem health]. , 1977, Ying yong sheng tai xue bao = The journal of applied ecology.

[104]  J. Terborgh.  On the Notion of Favorableness in Plant Ecology , 1973, The American Naturalist.

[105]  D. Levin,et al.  Species Richness of Plant Parasites and Growth Form of Their Hosts , 1979, The American Naturalist.

[106]  J. Diamond.  Colonization of Exploded Volcanic Islands by Birds: The Supertramp Strategy , 1974, Science.

[107]  James H. Brown,et al.  Fish Species Diversity in Lakes , 1974, The American Naturalist.

[108]  V. Tepedino,et al.  Cushion plants as islands , 1976, Oecologia.

[109]  Jorge R. Rey,et al.  Time and the Number of Herbivore Species: The Pests of Sugarcane , 1977 .

[110]  M E Gilpin,et al.  Calculation of immigration and extinction curves from the species-area-distance relation. , 1976, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[111]  H. Picton.  The application of insular biogeographic theory to the conservation of large mammals in the northern rocky mountains , 1979 .

[112]  K. Koopman.  Land Bridges and Ecology in Bat Distribution on Islands off the Northern Coast of South America , 1958 .

[113]  Gregory B. Smith.  Relationship of eastern Gulf of Mexico reef-fish communities to the species equilibrium theory of insular biogeography* , 1979 .

[114]  C. B. Williams.  Ecology. (Book Reviews: Patterns in the Balance of Nature. And related problems in quantitative ecology) , 1966 .

[115]  E. Willis.  Populations and Local Extinctions of Birds on Barro Colorado Island, Panama , 1974 .

[116]  R. Macarthur,et al.  The Theory of Island Biogeography , 1969 .

[117]  J. Diamond.  Comparison of faunal equilibrium turnover rates on a tropical island and a temperate island. , 1971, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[118]  J. Diamond,et al.  Island biogeography and conservation: strategy and limitations. , 1976, Science.

[119]  P. Grant,et al.  Nonequilibrial Bird Faunas on Islands , 1976, The American Naturalist.

[120]  D. Simberloff.  Species turnover and equilibrium island biogeography. , 1976, Science.