Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited

Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's The Theory of Island Biogeography, first published by Princeton in 1967, is one of the most influential books on ecology and evolution to appear in the past half century. By developing a general mathematical theory to explain a crucial ecological problem--the regulation of species diversity in island populations--the book transformed the science of biogeography and ecology as a whole. In The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited, some of today's most prominent biologists assess the continuing impact of MacArthur and Wilson's book four decades after its publication. Following an opening chapter in which Wilson reflects on island biogeography in the 1960s, fifteen chapters evaluate and demonstrate how the field has extended and confirmed--as well as challenged and modified--MacArthur and Wilson's original ideas. Providing a broad picture of the fundamental ways in which the science of island biogeography has been shaped by MacArthur and Wilson's landmark work, The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited also points the way toward exciting future research.

Auteur

Jonathan B. Losos is professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the curator of herpetology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. Robert E. Ricklefs is the Curators' Professor of Biology at University of Missouri, St. Louis.

Texte du rabat

Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson's The Theory of Island Biogeography, first published by Princeton in 1967, is one of the most influential books on ecology and evolution to appear in the past half century. By developing a general mathematical theory to explain a crucial ecological problem--the regulation of species diversity in island populations--the book transformed the science of biogeography and ecology as a whole. In The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited, some of today's most prominent biologists assess the continuing impact of MacArthur and Wilson's book four decades after its publication. Following an opening chapter in which Wilson reflects on island biogeography in the 1960s, fifteen chapters evaluate and demonstrate how the field has extended and confirmed--as well as challenged and modified--MacArthur and Wilson's original ideas. Providing a broad picture of the fundamental ways in which the science of island biogeography has been shaped by MacArthur and Wilson's landmark work, The Theory of Island Biogeography Revisited also points the way toward exciting future research.

Contenu

Foreword by Robert M. May vii
Preface by Jonathan B. Losos and Robert E. Ricklefs xi
List of Contributors xv
Island Biogeography in the 1960s
Theory and Experiment by Edward O. Wilson 1
Island Biogeography Theory
Reticulations and Reintegration of "a Biogeography of the Species" by Mark V. Lomolino, James H. Brown, and Dov. F. Sax 13
The MacArthur- Wilson Equilibrium Model
A Chronicle of What It Said and How It Was Tested by Thomas W. Schoener 52
A General Dynamic Theory of Oceanic Island Biogeography
Extending the MacArthur- Wilson Theory to Accommodate the Rise and Fall of Volcanic Islands by Robert J. Whittaker, Kostas A. Triantis, and Richard J. Ladle 88
The Trophic Cascade on Islands by John Terborgh 116
Toward a Trophic Island Biogeography
Reflections on the Interface of Island Biogeography and Food Web Ecology by Robert D. Holt 143
The Theories of Island Biogeography and Metapopulation Dynamics
Science Marches Forward, but the Legacy of Good Ideas Lasts for a Long Time by Ilkka Hanski 186
Beyond Island Biogeography Theory
Understanding Habitat Fragmentation in the Real World by William F. Laurance 214
Birds of the Solomon Islands
The Domain of the Dynamic Equilibrium Theory and Assembly Rules, with Comments on the Taxon Cycle by Daniel Simberloff and Michael D. Collins 237
Neutral Theory and the Theory of Island Biogeography by Stephen P. Hubbell 264
Evolutionary Changes Following Island Colonization in Birds
Empirical Insights into the Roles of Microevolutionary Processes by Sonya Clegg 293
Sympatric Speciation, Immigration, and Hybridization in Island Birds by Peter R. Grant and B. Rosemary Grant 326
Island Biogeography of Remote Archipelagoes
Interplay between Ecological and Evolutionary Processes by Rosemary G. Gillespie and Bruce G. Baldwin 358
Dynamics of Colonization and Extinction on Islands
Insights from Lesser Antillean Birds by Robert E. Ricklefs 388
The Speciation- Area Relationship by Jonathan B. Losos and Christina E. Parent 415
Ecological and Ge ne tic Models of Diversity
Lessons across Disciplines by Mark Vellend and John L. Orrock 439
Index 463