Global relationships that determine bird diversity on islands uncovered

[PhysOrg]

It is known that biodiversity is unevenly distributed across the planet. But why do some islands such as the Galápagos and Hawaii harbour so many unique species of birds? In the 1960's, Robert MacArthur & Edward Wilson proposed what was to become a highly influential theory in biology: the Theory of Island Biogeography. This theory predicts the number of species expected on any given island as a function of the area (size) of the island and its isolation (distance) from the mainland.

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