Islands as biological substrates: classification of the biological assemblage components and the physical island types

What is it about?

I have revisited the old Darwin-Wallace scheme that has been traditionally used to classify marine islands within the context of island biology/biogeography. I have separate labeling systems for the various biological components, based on how the founder(s) colonized the landmass, AND the physical island types (Darwin and Wallace mixed the two). I also introduce a lot more geology, geophysics etc to provide a better appreciation of the physical islands and how they function through time.

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Why is it important?

I'd like to think that the information provided in this paper, as well as the series that follow, will bring our understanding of islands as biological substrates into the 21st C. As is, most modern interpretations fall back on ideas/concepts that date from the middle to late 1800s.

Perspectives