School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK; CE3C - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes/Azorean Biodiversity Group and Universidade dos Açores - Depto de Ciências Agráriase Engenharia do Ambiente, PT-9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Açores, Portugal.
Department of Ecology and Taxonomy, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University, 15784 Athens, Greece.
Curr Biol. 2021 Oct 11;31(19):R1201-R1207. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.033.
Islands have fascinated biologists since the days of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and before, providing the inspiration for substantial theoretical development that has advanced our understanding of global biodiversity patterns and the mechanisms that underpin them. As such, they are often termed 'natural laboratories', providing the ideal setting to study the interface between ecology, evolution and conservation. Part of this fascination no-doubt arises from islands harboring a disproportionate amount of global biodiversity given the amount of land-mass they occupy (roughly 15-20% of global terrestrial species present in just 3.5% of global land), including large numbers of endemic forms not found anywhere else. Interestingly, more than 25% of human languages, many of which are also threatened with extinction, are also to be found on islands. In this primer, we provide an overview of the field of island biogeography, splitting it into three main sections. First, we explore some of the reasons that make islands, and the species that have evolved on them, unique and scientifically rewarding study systems for ecologists and biogeographers. Second, we delve into the key island biogeography works in order to provide an introductory summary of some of the main theoretical models developed to explain species diversity patterns on islands. Unfortunately, as well as representing captivating environments to study, islands are also highly threatened systems. As such, we end with an overview of the drivers and impacts of anthropogenic environmental change on islands, providing examples of some of the extraordinary island species that humans have driven extinct.
自查尔斯·达尔文和阿尔弗雷德·拉塞尔·华莱士时代以来，岛屿就一直吸引着生物学家，为推进我们对全球生物多样性模式及其支撑机制的理解提供了大量理论发展的灵感。因此，它们通常被称为“天然实验室”，为研究生态、进化和保护之间的关系提供了理想的环境。这种吸引力的一部分无疑源于岛屿所拥有的全球生物多样性不成比例，尽管它们只占据了全球陆地面积的 15-20%（全球陆地物种中约有 15-20%存在于全球陆地的 3.5%），其中包括大量在其他地方找不到的特有形式。有趣的是，超过 25%的人类语言，其中许多也面临灭绝的威胁，也存在于岛屿上。在这个入门指南中，我们概述了岛屿生物地理学领域，将其分为三个主要部分。首先，我们探讨了一些使岛屿及其进化物种成为生态学家和生物地理学家独特而有科学价值的研究系统的原因。其次，我们深入研究了关键的岛屿生物地理学著作，以便对为解释岛屿物种多样性模式而开发的一些主要理论模型进行介绍性总结。不幸的是，岛屿不仅是令人着迷的研究环境，也是高度受威胁的系统。因此，我们以概述人为环境变化对岛屿的驱动因素和影响结束，提供了一些人类导致灭绝的非凡岛屿物种的例子。
