Why islands?

Abstract

Ever since the first transoceanic expedition (XV century) islands worldwide have attracted the interest of voyagers, and, in recent centuries (XVIII-XX) especially from biogeographers, evolutionary biologists and ecologists. Some islands´ and archipelagoes´ special features, such as their quite diverse origin, their geographical settings and locations, their life cycle, their history, their well defined limits and, especially, their isolation, have made them outstanding life museums and laboartories. Using a wide variety of data from such islands, various different ecological and evolutionary hypotheses can be, and have been, tested. In fact, many fundamental theoretical concepts, central to the understanding of scientific disciplines such as ecology, biogeography, genetics, evolution and vulcanology, have resulted mainly or exclusively from island research.