Islands have relatively low species richness, but there are some islands such as Galapagos, Hawaii, Madagascar and Mauritius which possess a very high biodiversity. Islands are recognized as hotspots of endemicity and evolutionary marvels. Islands play a vital role as refuges of biodiversity. On the other hand, the theory of island biogeography has many implications for the conservation and management of ecosystems. How can island biogeography be applied to conserve biodiversity on the mainland?
Island biogeography can quite easily be used in mainland biodiversity. On mainlands the problems being faced is habitat fragmentation.Fragments are seperated from each other by an uninhabitable matrix, like islands with the sea between them. The island biography lessons that can be applied include island size effects, island shape effects and distance from source populations (on the mainland this is typically the largest piece of untouched/contiguous forest).
”How can island biogeography be applied to conserve biodiversity on the mainland? ”
nicely
(but only if you use your brain)
Well, islands are probably just the bests models for studding factors shaping biodiversity or human related species loss. Please check classical works of Diamond, Rosenzweig or Hanski. There hundreds if not thousands of papers on these issues; I would however suggest you to look for these works that question utility of islands as good proxy of fragmentation process so you will learn fast the key advantages and limitation of "island biogeography" approach to conservation
good luck
Within a few years of the publishing of the theory its potential application to the field of conservation biology had been realised and was being vigorously debated in ecological circles.[4] The idea that reserves and national parks formed islands inside human-altered landscapes (habitat fragmentation), and that these reserves could lose species as they 'relaxed towards equilibrium' (that is they would lose species as they achieved their new equilibrium number, known as ecosystem decay) caused a great deal of concern. This is particularly true when conserving larger species which tend to have larger ranges. A study by William Newmark, published in the journal Nature and reported in the New York Times, showed a strong correlation between the size of a protected U.S. National Park and the number of species of mammals.
This led to the debate known as single large or several small (SLOSS), described by writer David Quammen in The Song Of The Dodo as "ecology's own genteel version of trench warfare".[5] In the years after the publication of Wilson and Simberloff's papers ecologists had found more examples of the species-area relationship, and conservation planning was taking the view that the one large reserve could hold more species than several smaller reserves, and that larger reserves should be the norm in reserve design. This view was in particular championed by Jared Diamond. This led to concern by other ecologists, including Dan Simberloff, who considered this to be an unproven over-simplification that would damage conservation efforts. Habitat diversity was as or more important than size in determining the number of species protected.
Island biogeography theory also led to the development of wildlife corridors as a conservation tool to increase connectivity between habitat islands. Wildlife corridors can increase the movement of species between parks and reserves and therefore increase the number of species that can be supported, but they can also allow for the spread of disease and pathogens between populations, complicating the simple proscription of connectivity being good for biodiversity.
In species diversity, island biogeography most describes allopatric speciation. Allopatric speciation is where new gene pools arise out of natural selection in isolated gene pools. Island Biogeography is also useful in considering sympatric speciation, the idea of different species arising from one ancestral species in the same area. Interbreeding between the two differently adapted species would prevent speciation, but in some species, sympatric speciation appears to have occurred.
This is useful theory though I find that it fits more in fauna analysis, can it fit in flora too?
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