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.
