Name: ________________________________________________________ Date: _______________________________ Period: _________

Theory of Island Biogeography Lab Activity

Before beginning the lab, please read pages 171-172 and answer the following questions on the same piece
of paper.
1. What two factors influence the biodiversity of an island?
2. What two features of an island affect the immigration and extinction rate of its species?  Explain how these
features affect biodiversity.
3. Does an island have to be a literal island in a body of water?  Explain what can be meant by island.

A Bit of Background
Island biogeography is the study of community diversity on islands. One of the variables studied is the rate
of colonization by additional species – called recruitment. The farther an island is from the mainland (or the
source of colonists), the less frequently new colonists will arrive and become established. Also, the larger an
island, the more likely it is more colonists to “find” that space and establish themselves on the island.
Another variable is the carrying capacity of the island. Small islands contain fewer resources and support
populations of fewer individuals. Small populations are more susceptible to local extinction; so small islands have
fewer species than equivalent large islands. Small islands also have a higher ratio of perimeter to area than larger
islands. This is important because at the borders of habitats, the physical conditions are often a combination of the
conditions of either habitat. An example on oceanic islands is the perimeter of the forest, which will be buffeted by
salt spray, while the forest’s center will not be. This creates an “edge effect.”
The principles from island biogeography can easily be applied to terrestrial situations. For example, alpine
habitats are usually separated by lowland habitats, and lake habitats are separated by terrestrial and stream
habitats. Fragmented habitats, such as rainforest parcels separated by farmlands, can be considered “islands.”
Many wildlife managers have taken the effects of “island” size into account and have begun to link smaller
fragments of habitat together using small corridors to effectively increase the island size. (Costa Rica is an
example.) There has also been increasing concern that if a catastrophe damages a nature preserve that is
essentially an island, the preserve may not recover quickly unless there is a source of colonists (equivalent to the
mainland) fairly close by.
The Theory of Island Biogeography originally explained how species come to be distributed across oceanic
islands. Now, this theory is used to describe how islands of one habitat are located within other habitats. This
theory predicts the “habitat island’s” biodiversity based on how big the island is and how far from the “mainland” it
is.
Basically,
 The farther away the island, the less diverse it will be. There are lower immigration rate (organisms
leaving). This is the “distance effect”
 The bigger the island, the more diverse it will be. There is a larger immigration rate because it is easier to
“land” on a bigger piece of land.
 Larger islands have lower extinction rates because more space allows for larger populations, which are less
vulnerable.

Hypothesis: Write a hypothesis on your separate sheet of paper concerning our scenario (four islands of
different sizes off of a coast) – which island do you predict to have the highest biodiversity and why?
If/then/because format.
Procedure:
1. You have been given four island-shaped pieces of paper – two big
and two small. Choose which side of the table you would like to
throw your items from, then set one big island closer to that side
and one farther from that side, and one small island closer to that
side and farther from that side. See Aerial View of the table to the
right as an example.
2. You have been given a cup of 5 different species of different sizes –
there should be five of each species in your cup. Check the floor
around you in case any didn’t get picked up, and then see Mrs.
Macedo if you are still missing some.
 3. You will remain on the coastline of mainland (~2 floor squares away from the edge of your table). From the
coast, you will try and land all of your species on each island (one island at a time).
4. Then count how many individuals of each species made it to each island and record your number in Data
Table 1. Make sure you rescue the species that are drowning (didn’t make it to an island and might’ve
ended up in the ocean – on the floor) aka CLEAN-UP at the end of the activity.
5. Each student should complete steps 3-4 one at a time, then combine your data in the group data table (Data
Table 2).

Results:
Data Table 1: Individual Data – Number of Species Data Table 2: Group Data
that Landed on Each Island – Number of Species that
Island Big, Near Small, Near Big, Far Small, Far Landed on Each Island
# of Beans Total % of
Number Total
# of Cotton Island of All Thrown
Balls Species
# of Paper Big, Near
clips
# of Coins Small,
Near
# of Clothes Big, Far
Pins
Total No. of Small, Far
All Items
% of Total
Thrown that
made it

Conclusion: Does the data support your hypothesis? Write a detailed paragraph on your separate sheet of
paper that answers the following questions.
1. Identify the independent and dependent variables for this experiment. What were some control variables
that weren’t accounted for? How could that impact your results?
2. Compare the numbers vs the percent for each species. What do you find?
3. Which island had the highest biodiversity? Explain why this might be.
4. Did fragmentation of the mainland habitat affect the diversity of species found? Explain.
5. You are working on designing a reserve, but the final size has been decided, and you must choose between
two sites.  Site 1 has a very low community diversity value because it is largely dominated by a single
species; however, one of the rare species found there is so rare it is found in only one other park.  Site 2
lacks this particular rare species, but has much higher diversity values because it contains more species
than Site 1 and none of the species is particularly dominant.  Which site would you choose for the reserve
and why?
6. Five islands, A, B, C, D, and E, differ only in distance from the mainland, area, and species diversity. Which
island would be predicted to have the highest species diversity? Explain citing specific evidence from your
experiment.

Island Distance from Mainland (kM) Area (hectares)

A A 50 1 x 102
B B 50 1 x 106
C C 500 1 x 102
D D 1,000 1 x 102
E E 1,000 1 x 106