Biodiversity in the Context of Island Biogeography
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity Conservation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 177
Special Issue Editors
Interests: macroecological analyses; phylogenetic analysis; DNA barcoding; statistical modeling; biodiversity patterns; biogeography
Interests: ecology; biodiversity; ecosystem ecology; natural resource management; species diversity; wildlife conservation; evolution
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Islands are natural laboratories, offering us the unique opportunity to more easily study and understand the complexity of biodiversity patterns across space and time. The Theory of Island Biogeography, formulated nearly 60 years ago by R.H. MacArthur and E.O. Wilson, remains a cornerstone of ecological and evolutionary research. The Theory of Island Biogeography has been pivotal in expanding our understanding of how biodiversity patterns emerge and persist by lending its quantitative principles to other fields that used “islands” as fundamental analytical components, such as the species–area and species–energy relationships, the role of dispersal and in situ speciation in shaping species richness and community assembly, and metapopulation dynamics. Collectively, the original framework along with its later refinements have provided a powerful lens for understanding biodiversity across both true islands and isolated island-like environments, such as habitat islands, lakes, seamounts, and sky islands.
This Special Issue invites contributions that explore biodiversity in all its aspects—taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic—with a focus on how island biogeography continues to inform the detection and explanation of spatiotemporal diversity patterns. We particularly encourage submissions that combine recent statistical advancements and data integration methods with innovative ecological frameworks. Studies addressing community assembly processes, species interactions, and the effects of human activities on biodiversity, including species invasions, habitat modification, and conservation challenges are also welcome. By addressing novel approaches, concepts, and key future challenges, this Special Issue provides a platform to highlight the current status and significant advances related to island biogeography theory, its relevance in broader diversity contexts and its importance for global biodiversity conservation.
Dr. Konstantinos Proios
Dr. Maria Lazarina
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- island biogeography
- biodiversity
- species richness
- community assembly
- dispersal
- in situ speciation
- species–area relationship
- human impact
- habitat island
- conservation
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