Island Biogeography Theory Research Paper

The Island Biogeography theory and species richness in different tidal pools on St Lucia coast lines

By: Daniela Maia student number: 201406936

Introduction

Islands are most commonly known as landmasses that are surrounded by a body of water, in this case the ocean is the body of water. Islands, however, are also isolated areas within another area that bear different species that are rare as well as unique in comparison to the surrounding environment (habitat within a habitat) says (Guo, 2015) . According to Thornton (2007), there are two types of islands, namely; continental islands and oceanic islands. Continental islands are formed when land is isolated within the mainland. Lakes, mountain tops and man created reserves are seen as continental islands. Oceanic islands have submerged from the ocean beds through decreasing sea levels and do not break away from the mainland but remains isolated. Island, hold a significant scientific value as they are rich in species which differ from the mainland. (Guo, 2015).

Another example of an island includes tide pools. Tide pools are craters on rocky

This concept of the Island biogeography theory describes how the number of species on an island , increases as the island size increases (Pâslaru, 2014). Another concept of the Island Biogeography Theory is the species – isolation relationship. This describes how the number of species decreases as the distance between the island and the source increases. The distances from the source have an influence on the movement of species to the island (Pâslaru, 2014). The Island Biogeography Theory takes into consideration the immigration and extinction rate of species. As species within the island become extinct , there are new species that immigrate from the main source or other neighboring islands and recolonize ( Figure 1). Thus species numbers are constant (Jun et al,