Island Biogeography What is Biogeography Bio means life

Island Biogeography

What is Biogeography? �“Bio” means “life” �Geography is the study of locations �“Biogeography” is the study of where different kinds of organisms live �Biogeography also looks at how the locations of different organisms has changed over time �It can tell us a lot about the history of an organism or a population

Island Biogeography �Islands are great “natural labs” for biogeography �They are isolated—any organisms living on an island must have moved to the island at some point in the past �Populations on an island are related to populations on the “mainland” �Over time, the population on an island will begin to look and behave differently than the original “mainland” population

Colonization �Colonization is the term used to describe the movement of organisms from the mainland to an island �There are some basic principles for how colonization works �Islands closer to the mainland are more likely to be colonized than islands farther away �Islands that are older are more likely to be colonized than younger islands

Colonization �Larger islands are more likely to have populations of species become established �Populations on different islands are not likely to interact �Over time, the population on an island will diverge from the population on the mainland “Diverge” means “to separate” or “to go in another direction” So the island populations become different than the mainland population

Brainstorm! �List three reasons why you think a population on an island would diverge from a population of the same species on the mainland.

Possible Answers: �Different Climate �Different Food Sources �Different Predators �Different kinds of competition