Incluye referencias bibliográficas (p. 351-381) e índice.

The natural laboratory paradigm -- Island Environments -- Biodiversity hot-spots -- Speciation and the island condition -- Arrival and change -- Emergent models of island –evolution -- Species numbers games -- Community assembly and dynamics -- Island theory and conservation -- The human impact on island ecosystems

Island biogeography is the study of the distribution and dynamics of species in island environments. Due to their isolation from more widespread continental species, islands are ideal places for unique species to evolve, but they are also places of concentrated extinction. Not surprisingly, they are widely studied by ecologists, conservationists and evolutionary biologists alike.
There is no other recent textbook devoted solely to island biogeography, and a synthesis of the many recent advances is now overdue. This second edition builds on the success and reputation of the first, documenting the recent advances in this exciting field and explaining how islands have been used as natural laboratories in developing and testing ecological and evolutionary theories. In addition, Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation describe the main processes of island formation, development and eventual demise, and explain the relevance of island environmental history to island biogeography. The authors demonstrate the huge significance of islands as hotspots of biodiversity, and as places from which disproportionate numbers of species have been extinguished by human action in historical time. Many island species are today threatened with extinction, and Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation examines both the chief threats to their persistence and some of the mitigation measures that can be put in play with conservation strategies tailored to islands.
New to this edition:
- Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation has been reorganised into four parts, each of three chapters, with the island ecology chapters now preceding the island evolution.
- Two new chapters have been added: the first of which draws together recent theoretical developments in island ecology. The second divides what was the last chapter in the first edition, to provide increased emphasis on conservation problems and solutions on islands.
- The material on island environmental histories has been considerably updated, and there is a lot of new material derived from phylogenetic studies on islands, which is reflected in a much revised chapter on the emergent models of island evolution.
- Island Biogeography: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation list has been greatly expanded, reflecting the large amount of new work published since the first edition was written.