Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 16 December 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5755, pp. 1807 - 1809
DOI: 10.1126/science.1120165
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Island Biogeography of Populations: An Introduced Species Transforms Survival Patterns

Thomas W. Schoener,1* Jonathan B. Losos,2 David A. Spiller1

Population phenomena, which provide much of the underlying basis for the theoretical structure of island biogeography, have received little direct study. We determined a key population trait—survival—in the Bahamian lizard Anolis sagrei on islands with an experimentally introduced predatory lizard and on neighboring unmanipulated islands. On unmanipulated islands, survival declined with several variables, most notably vegetation height: The island with the shortest vegetation had nearly the highest survival recorded for any lizard. On islands with the introduced predator, which forages mostly on the ground, A. sagrei shifted to taller vegetation; unlike on unmanipulated islands, its survival was very low on islands with the shortest vegetation but was higher on the others. Thus, species introduction radically changed a resident species' relation of survival to a key island-biogeographical variable.

1 Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
2 Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: twschoener{at}ucdavis.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Sex differences in energetic costs explain sexual dimorphism in the circadian rhythm modulation of the electrocommunication signal of the gymnotiform fish Brachyhypopomus pinnicaudatus.
V. L. Salazar and P. K. Stoddard (2008)
J. Exp. Biol. 211, 1012-1020
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)