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Experimental Zoogeography Of Islands, Daniel Simberloff, Edward O. Wilson

Doctoral Dissertations

A technique for insular defaunation utilizing methyl bromide fumigation was evolved. Seven islands in Florida Bay, of varying distance and direction from potential zoogeographic source areas were censused exhaustively. The small size (45 ft. diameter) and ecological simplicity of these islands, which consist solely of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) trees with no supratidal ground, allowed the determination of all resident species. The completeness of the censuses was corroborated by chloropicrin fumigation. The breeding land fauna of these islands is composed almost exclusively of terrestrial arthropods, with 20-50 species usually present. Surveys of these taxa in the Florida Keys, with emphasis …