The Effect of Source Pool Maturity on the Process of Island Colonization: An Experimental Approach with Protozoan Communities

Abstract

Artificial substrate islands were exposed to source pooi protozoan communities of differing maturities (i.e., some stage of development between pioneer and mature) in a series of laboratory microecosystem experiments. The process of species accrual on the islands was analyzed with the MacArthur-Wilson noninteractive colonization model. Exposure of initially barren islands to source pools which were in an early stage of development resulted in significantly (a = 0.05) more rapid initial colonization rates and faster attainment of equilibrium species numbers than exposure to the most mature source pools. The results supported the hypothesis that colonization rates onto the islands were influenced by the maturity of source pools and the proportion of pioneer species in the source pool communities.