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🏝️ Island Biogeography and the Species-Area Relationship

Explore MacArthur and Wilson's theory of island biogeography, where immigration and extinction rates settle into a dynamic equilibrium that predicts how many species an island can hold, and see why this idea reshaped nature reserve design.

Ecology & Conservation Biology3DModerate60 FPS

The simulator visualizes the immigration and extinction rate curves for an island of adjustable size and distance from the mainland, showing in real time where the two curves intersect to produce the predicted equilibrium species count, along with ongoing species turnover as the island community fluctuates around that equilibrium.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Adjust the island size and its distance from the mainland source pool using the sliders, and watch how the immigration curve and extinction curve shift and where they now cross. Run the simulation forward in time to see individual species colonize and go locally extinct while the total species count settles toward the new predicted equilibrium, then compare outcomes across several islands of different sizes and isolation levels side by side.

💡 Did You Know?

In a classic 1960s experiment, E.O. Wilson and Daniel Simberloff fumigated several small mangrove islets in the Florida Keys to kill off every insect and spider living there, then watched the islets recolonize. Within about a year, each islet's arthropod species count had rebounded to roughly its original equilibrium level, even though the specific species present had substantially changed, direct field proof of both equilibrium and turnover.

⚙ Under the hood

ecologybiogeographyconservationspecies diversityevolutionbiologyenvironmental science

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install