Glacial migrations of plants: island biogeographical evidence

Abstract

Analyses of the floras of the high north Andean habitat islands (paramos) and the Galápagos Islands show that plant species diversity conforms to the MacArthur and Wilson model of island biogeography but that immigration occurred primarily during glacial periods. Modern plant species diversity is more significantly correlated with area and distance measures of the glacial forms of the islands than with similar measures of the present-day islands.