Island Ecology

Open Lecture Links. Watch and understand the following e-lectures on Island Ecology (3). Use
the information from the e-lectures to answer the questions below.
Running models of Island Biogeography

Instructions:

1. Explore 2 research questions

a. Is there a Species Richness-Area relationship?
b. Is there a Species Richness-distance relationship?

2. Open the Island Biogeography website below by copying and pasting on your browser.

http://virtualbiologylab.org/ModelsHTML5/IslandBiogeography/IslandBiogeography.html

Watch the tutorial below.

3. Change taxon to Reptiles. Click on Run Experiment.

4. Pause the simulation. Click "Clear Island" and "Reset data" from the design and data pages.
When you are ready to start, click on the play button to begin the simulation.

5. Allow around 200 times units to pass then pause the simulation. Collect data on species
richness as it relates to each of the islands. Take a screenshot of our data and design. Paste it
as part of your answers . If you mess up, repeat step 4 above and try it again.

6. Answer the questions below as a new discussion post.

Questions
With each of the research question (2), answer the following:
1. What are the independent and dependent variable? Which factors were held constant be-
tween the two islands? (10 points)

The independent variable were the island area, while the independent variable is the
Taxon. This is because the island area remains untouched and the same, while the
taxon become dependent because their mortality and migration rate depends on the
independent variable. And the factor that remained constant between the two islands is
the time period or duration, distance and the climate. Regardless the area, the time,
distance and climate remained constant between the two islands.

2. What can you conclude? Make a claim that answers your research questions. Be direction-
al in your claim, meaning you should indicate increases and decreases in relation to
species richness (For example, As area of the island increase the species richness ).
Support your claim with the evidence and the actual data you collected. Indicate percent
increases and decreases where applicable (10 points). Include your screenshots or data
tables. Support your claims. (20 points)

As area of the island increase, the species richness also increase. Island one has
larger area compared to island two, and data shows that Island 1 has larger population
of species compared to the other. Shown in the data, island one accumulated 19 species
while island one only has 3. This shows that the larger the area, the more diverse it is,
through the existence of different species through time.
3. How is the Island Biogeography theory (Species Richness-Area and Species Richness-dis-
tance relationships) useful for conservation and for sampling in the Philippines? (10 points).

This theory helps explain how biodiversity and abundance in a certain location
happens or occurs. It creates a avenue for understanding on how species exist in an area.
With this knowledge, researchers can have idea on how these species are threatened,
most especially in the case of disturbance of their habitat or of their natural order. In the
case of land area, diverse areas come with their usually large area where species adhere to
natural competition to survive without taking into consideration the threat of outside
factors. Through this theory, much can be done on how species can be protected and
conserved by giving them the appropriate area to survive and live with other species.
Reading Assignments

Download the 2 attached articles and answer the following questions

1. Discuss the implications of the results of the study by Alvarez-Noreiga et al., 2017 below to
management strategy of marine protected areas.

a. tropical marine species have short planktonic durations (5 points)

Tropical marine species have short planktonic durations because mainly of the effects
of high temperatures to marine larvae. The higher the temperature, the faster the
development is, allowing its planktonic duration to be short. When compared to lower
temperatures, higher temperatures affect larval development in terms of time or duration.
And in this case, high temperatures speed up the development resulting to short
planktonic duration.

b. tropical marine species have huge dispersal distances (5 points)

For tropical marine species, their dispersal distance is discovered to be huge, because
of currents. The higher the temperature, the higher the currents speed. And with this, the
dispersal of these marine species are huge. Meaning, they travel farther through current,
and faster during high temperatures. And this is in accordance with hydrodynamics,
which predicts dispersal patterns and duration.
2. Discuss the results of Haeney 1985 in Table 1 (p 135) in relation to the following
a. Species richness of different Philippine islands in relation to the area and distance to main
land Asia (Borneo-Malay Peninsula) (5 points)
Endemism of non-volant mammals in the Sunda shelf islands and in Philippine
faunal regions show that Sunda shelf have greater accumulation on native species, but
most of it was concentrated in Borneo and Greater Mindanao in the Philippines.
However, despite having advantage on the number of native species, the Philippines
have higher number of endemic species, and still in Greater Mindanao, which explains
the isolation of these surviving endemic species to these area in the Philippines. The
distance and geographical factors that isolated these species in the Philippines explain
their dispersal.

b. What do you expect on the similarity or differences of the species richness of flora and fau-
na in the Philippines and the mainland Asia (Borneo-Malaysia Peninsula) (5 points)
Because of the distance between the Philippines and Borneo-Malaysia Peninsula, I
expected similar dispersal of species. Not only because of the distance, but the
similarity on climate and temperature that both areas share. Both the Philippines and the
Borneo-Malaysia Peninsula lie near the equator line, enjoying tropical climate. Hence, it
can be expected that dispersal of tropical species can be similarly shared.

c. Implications to distribution and cultures of the Filipinos and Indonesia-Malaysian neighbors

(5 points).
There is more on the positive note than the contrary when talking about the
distribution and cultures of the Filipinos with its Indonesia and Malaysian neighbors. For
hundreds of years, the asian countries have shared similar cultures and share similar
understanding in behavior, practices and perspective. When it comes to Science and
technology, much also has been shared, in the case of similarity. Much has and can be
done between these neighbors to develop relationship towards protecting each other
natural resources.
3. Watch the video below and
a. Discuss the three natural factors that determine preferences of organism's distribution. Give
example of each (what organism and where, you may refer to other info from the net). 15
points
 According to Hughes et al. (1997), the distribution of species depend on three factors
which are physical, chemical and biological factors. In the case of arctic species, they
are dispersed on areas where they can adapt biologically and physically. These depend
on temperature and availability food. For tropical species, they could only biologically,
chemically and physically endure tropical climate on tropical countries, explaining their
dispersal except on areas with low temperature. Furthermore, abiotic issues such as low
temperature, availability of water and nutrients disallow the dispersal of tropical species
from existing on arctic areas. Hence, the distribution of organisms mainly depend on
their capacity to adapt to the environment and the degree of their capacity to adapt.

b. Discuss how humans influence the distribution of organisms - 5 points

Early on this assignment was the discussion on the importance of area, climate,
distance and phycial, chemical and biological factors, which highly affect the
existence and dispersal of species on different areas. When any of these factors are
disturbed, then the species are at risk. This explains the threat of global warming.
Animal, even plant species grow on environments that support their needs for
survival such as temperature. And when the temperatures rise, arctic species might
have difficulty adapting, which will lead to their extinction.