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Date of Award
4-27-1996
Document Type
Restricted Thesis: Campus only access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Dr. John Bishop
Recommended Citation
Edmondson, Jeff, "The island biogeography theory and the possible applications of the Chaos Theory" (1996). Honors Theses. 474.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/honors-theses/474
COinS
Comments
Little is known even today about how the interrelation between internal and external factors effects a given communities composition and structure. Edward 0. Wilson and Robert H. MacArthur (1967) were the first to truly develop a scientific theory concerning community structure with the theory of island biogeography. Island biogeography focused on the interplay between an island and nearby land masses and how both island area and distance between land masses effects species composition of and island over time. The major assertion being that an equilibrium in the number of species able to occupy an island is reached based on area and location and that an islands species carrying capacity would be determined by this equilibrium. However, Wilson and MacArthur acknowledged that the theory did not effectively consider much of the internal factors, namely those unique to a given community, that may effect species composition. This they believed would need to be discovered over time with the development of mathematical models and other "novel" sciences (Wilson and MacArthur, 1967).