Species numbers games: the macroecology of island biotas

Abstract Having established the biogeographical significance of islands, we now move on to the theories that have been developed from their study. We take our lead from Robert H. MacArthur and Edward O. Wilson’s (1967) classic monograph The theory of island biogeography, by working from a consideration of ecological patterns and processes, through island evolutionary processes to the emergent evolutionary outcomes. In this first ecological chapter, we focus on a research programme within ecological biogeography in which MacArthur and Wilson provided the seminal influence. This programme centres around species numbers as the principal response variable, and is concerned with: the nature of species-area relationships; the factors determining the number of species found on an island; and the rates of species turnover in isolates.