Ecology 6th Edition by Charles Krebs

Exercise 3

Mammals on mountaintops in the Great Basin of western North America have been cited as a model case at variance with the MacArthur-Wilson theory of island biogeography. Brown (1971) postulated that mammals in the Great Basin were remnant populations subject only to extinction (no immigration is possible). Lawlor (1998) rejects this explanation. Review Lawlor's data and the changing interpretations of these mountaintop communities in relation to equilibrium and nonequilibrium theories of community dynamics.