Pacific Island principles: learning to live wise and sustainable lives -

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Island Ecosystems

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Types of island ecosystems

An island is a body of land, smaller than a continent, completely surrounded by water. Plants and animals of island ecosystems have many distinctive features, often related to the type of island:

old continental islands e.g. New Caledonia and New Zealand, originally part of a continent
oceanic islands, generally volcanic and short lived e.g. Hawai'i
coral atolls (see photo of Palmyra Atoll)
small, numerous islands e.g. red mangrove islets in the tropics, sand islets of the Caribbean and Indian Ocean, and
barrier islands parallel and close to the mainland coast.

Photo title: Palmyra Atoll, Pacific Ocean

Photo credit: Kim Cobb, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Island biogeography

Island ecosystems have been studied because they are simpler than ocean ecosystems. Even clusters of islands are simpler to study. Islands provide natural “experiments” for research because of their number, variation in shape, size, degree of isolation and ecology. Oceanic islands near continents may have continental plants and animals. More isolated islands may have endemic species. One of the key relationships in island biogeography is the area-biodiversity curve. Generally the larger the island, the more diverse the plants and animals. To put it another way, environmental diversity is correlated with island area.

Photo title: Bahia Azul, Panama, a great chaenopsid collecting site

Photo credit: P A Hastings, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Acanthemblemaria mangognatha, a new tube blenny endemic to Islas Revillagigedos, Mexico

More recent interest in island biogeography has had an impact on conservation biology. Many features of island ecosystems are relevant to ecosystem conservation elsewhere, on land as well as in the oceans. Island ecosystems have helped our understanding of:

fragmentation (leading to insularization)
creation of biotic communities, and
species extinction.

Photo title: Acanthemblemaria mangognatha, a new tube blenny endemic to Islas Revillagigedos, Mexico

Photo credit: D R Robertson

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Institutional Contact (19)

Title

Pacific Island principles: learning to live wise and sustainable lives ( DOCUMENT )

Author(s) / Editor(s)

Thaman, K. H.;

Thaman, R. R.

Description

Chapter 2 offers a Pacific Island perspective on sustainability. It considers how Pacific people view sustainable development and what knowledge, skills and values do we need to teach young people to enable them to live worthwhile and sustainable lives? This volume offers a global perspective on education initiatives by and for young people that promote a transition to sustainability. It includes 38 essays co-authored by 68 contributors from 25 nations, representing a diversity of geography, gender, and generation.

Keywords

PACIFIC ISLANDS;

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Geography Keywords

PACIFIC ISLANDS;

PACIFIC OCEAN

Content Language(s)

English

Web Address

http://www.wageningenacademic.com/youngpeople

Type of Document

Book chapter