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Insular biogeography

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Insular biogeography or island biogeography is a field within biogeography that examines the factors that affect the species richness and diversification of isolated natural communities. The theory was originally developed to explain the pattern of the species–area relationship occurring in oceanic islands. Under either name it is now used in reference to any ecosystem (present or past) that is isolated due to being surrounded by unlike ecosystems, and has been extended to mountain peaks, seamounts, oases, fragmented forests, and even natural habitats isolated by human land development. The field was started in the 1960s by the ecologists Robert H. MacArthur and E. O. Wilson, who coined the term island biogeography in their inaugural contribution to Princeton's Monograph in Population Biology series, which attempted to predict the number of species that would exist on a newly created island.

Insular biogeography - Wikipedia Jump to content From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Study of the ecology of isolated habitats Part of a series on Evolutionary biology Darwin's finches by John Gould Index Introduction Main Outline Glossary Evidence History Processes and outcomes Population genetics Quantitative genetics Variation Diversity Mutation Natural selection Adaptation Polymorphism Genetic drift Gene flow Speciation Adaptive radiation Cooperation Coevolution Coextinction Contingency Divergence Convergence Parallel evolution Extinction Natural history Origin of life Common descent His

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