Animal Sciences Commons^™

Island Biogeography In Southeastern Wisconsin: A Progress Report., James Levenson, Paul Matthiae

Field Station Bulletins

Ecosystems develop as a result of interactions between the biotic and abiotic components in the environment. Natural systems are diverse and stable when interactions between the community and the supersystem are in balance. Change or perturbation in the supersystem will effect a commensurate change in the natural subsystems. Urbanization results in the remaining natural systems becoming isolated within the urban system-a supersystem quite unlike that which gave rise to the natural system. As a result, the natural subsystem must change in the way in which it interacts with its new supersystem to reach equilibrium. A mechanism for such change in …