Grrlscientist — who was supposed to send me some writing to look at (poke poke) — has a fascinating post up this week describing a significant undermining of established wisdom in the field of island biogeography.
The common assumption has been that islands — especially remote oceanic ones — are places on which mainland species are marooned, to evolve in isolation, occasionally providing colorful examples of speciation (cf. Darwin’s finches) and then, inevitably, to go extinct.
Grrlscientist cites the work of some friends — published in Nature — that indicates islands may actually serve as reservoirs of avian biodiversity: that some island birds may actually re-colonize the continents from which their ancestors came, potentially reintroducing a species, more often introducing a daughter species to compete with its mainland cousins.
It’s a fascinating article, and thanks to grrlscientist for bringing it to my attention.
