Oceanic archipelagos: a perspective on the geodynamics and bi-ogeography of the World’s smallest biotic provinces

Since the contributions of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, oceanic archipelagos have played a central role in the development of biogeography. However, despite the critical influence of oceanic islands on ecological and evolutionary theory, our focus has remained limited to either the isla...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Triantis, Kostas A., Whittaker, Robert J., Fernández-Palacios, José María, Geist, Dennis J.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:España
Institución:Universidad de La Laguna (ULL)
Repositorio:RIULL. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de La Laguna
OAI Identifier:oai:riull.ull.es:915/17381
Acceso en línea:http://riull.ull.es/xmlui/handle/915/17381
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Diversity
Island biogeography
Volcanic islands
Diversidad
Biogeografía insular
Islas volcánicas
Descripción
Sumario:Since the contributions of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, oceanic archipelagos have played a central role in the development of biogeography. However, despite the critical influence of oceanic islands on ecological and evolutionary theory, our focus has remained limited to either the island-level of specific archipelagos or single archipelagos. Recently, it was proposed that oceanic archi-pelagos qualify as biotic provinces, with diversity primarily reflecting a balance between speciation and extinction, with colonization having a minor role. Here we focus on major attributes of the archipelagic geological dynamics that can affect diversity at both the island and the archipelagic level. We also re-affirm that oceanic archipelagos are appropriate spatiotemporal units to frame analyses in order to un-derstand large scale patterns of biodiversity.