Archipelagos and meta-archipelagos

Abstract

The term meta-archipelago has been in use in cultural studies for some time, to refer to certain complex island areas in which the boundaries between conventionally recognised archipelagos are indistinct, although the concept also carries additional connotations. Use of the term in biogeography appears more recent and without effort to prescribe its meaning. We outline, from a biogeographical perspective, distinctions between meta-archipelagos and archipelagos and those islands not occurring within either collective grouping, highlighting that network analysis tools provide metrics for formal analytical purposes.