Island Biogeography

Step 1: Take a look at the power point slides on MacArthur and Wilson (1967)'s Theory of Island Biogeography. 

Step 2: The following table contains data on island area and the number of bird and flowering plant genera found for some Pacific islands. 

Graph the data to show the relationship between island area and species richness. You can plot both flowering plants and birds on one chart, or make two separate charts. Label your X and Y axis, and scale the axis appropriately for the data. You may do this by hand, with graph paper, or in Excel or another spreadsheet program. Include your charts in this file, or in a separate labeled document. 

5. What do you find is the general relationship between area and number of flowering plant genera? 

6. What do you find is the general relationship between island area and number of bird genera? 

7. Do birds and flowering plants differ in their response to island area?

8. Are there any other geographic characteristics of the islands that might be influencing the numbers of flowering plants and birds? 

Step 3: Read Kreft et al. 2008. 

9. What research questions did Kreft et al. investigate? 

10. What data did they use and what methods did they use to analyze that data? 

11. Do Kreft et al.'s findings support MacArthur and Wilson's general theory? 

12. What other variables did Kreft et al. find influenced species richness?