Two ecologists, Robert H. MacArthur and Edward Wilson, studied how organisms immigrate to islands and how their numbers change after colonization. They developed the island biogeography model to explain the composition and diversity of island species. The graph below shows the number of species versus the size of the Caribbean island: 1,000 SPECIES BY AREA. Hispaniola Puerto Rico oo co a Monserrat Osaba 1,000 Redona 100 Jamaica 10,000 Island Size in Square Kilometers Cuba 100,000 1,000,000 a. Use the Species by Area graph and your knowledge of how organisms can immigrate to answer the following: i. Identify the likely scientific question being investigated in the study. ii. Describe the relationship between species number and island size observed in the data. iii. Explain how the experiment results would change if the islands had frequent ships that docked on them from distant bodies of water. b. Scientists have found that most species on the same continent are more closely related to each other than to organisms on other continents. They hypothesize that this phenomenon is due to the evolution that occurred after the continents split apart, or in the case of island biogeography, after islands formed off the coast of mainland regions. i. Explain the role of adaptive evolution in island biodiversity. ii. Describe one process that leads to speciation of islands. iii. Explain how the biodiversity of an island affects its ecological tolerance to change. iv. Explain how specialist species are affected when generalist species migrate to an island. c. Island ecosystems experience ecological succession in different stages of their development. i. Describe the process of primary succession on an island. ii. Describe the process of secondary succession on an island. iii. Identify two scenarios that lead to secondary succession on an island. Explain how these scenarios can affect island biodiversity.
Biogeography
The study of plants, animals, and other living things in terms of their geographic distribution is referred to as biogeography. Biogeography is usually examined in coexistence with ecological and historical variables that have affected organisms' spatial distribution across time. It is not only based on the habitation patterns; it is also about the reasons that cause differences in distribution. Biogeographic studies divide the Earth's surface into diverse flora and fauna compositions, notably the continents and islands. Biogeography is a field of science, but physical geographers have made vital commitments, especially in flora. Biogeography is a multidisciplinary field of study that combines concepts and data from ecology, evolutionary biology, taxonomy, geology, physical geography, paleontology, and climatology.
Types of Climate
The weather pattern in a long-term process in a locality, region, or even over the entire globe is known as climate. Generally, it is decided by calculating an average of thirty years' weather in a region. In that sense, the weather and climate are different.
Biome
It is defined as a definite community of animals and plants residing together in a climate. Each (plants and animals) having a characteristic appearance and distributed over a wide geographical area defined largely by regional climatic conditions.


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