Species diversity of mainland-and island forests in the Pacific area

✍ Scribed by Itow, Syuzo

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 530 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1573-5052
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00045765

✦ Synopsis

Alpha diversity, or species richness, of East Asian mainland evergreen broadleaved forests, expressed by indices of Fisher's alpha (o0 and S000 ), a new index showing species number in a 100-individual sample, is significantly correlated with the climatic favorableness, expressed by Kira's warmth index. On the contrary, diversity values of insular forests studied on Kynshu satellites of Japan, the Bonins, the Eastern Carolines of Micronesia, and the Gal~tpagos in the eastern Pacific, are below those expected from the climate of respective oceanic islands. Species-individual curves, comparing mainland-and insular communities, also support clearly the above conclusion of species poverty in the insular communities studied.