Not continents in miniature: islands as ecotones

• Main Author: John R. Gillis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Prince Edward Island 2014-05-01
• Series: Island Studies Journal
• Subjects: continent; ecotone; edge species; islands; littoral; margin; terraqueous
• Online Access: http://www.islandstudies.ca/sites/islandstudies.ca/files/ISJ-9-1-Gillis_0.pdf

Islands are usually thought of as being territorial-like continents, but on a smaller scale. Yet, they differ from continents in one fundamental regard: their relationship to water. Islands must be understood as ecotones, a concept of increasing importance to the environmental sciences in recent years, but not well known to island studies scholars. An ecotone is a place where two ecosystems connect and create a unique environment different from both. It therefore illuminates aspects of island life that are obscured when we treat islands as bounded territorial units constituting a singular ecosystem. Continents may contain one or more ecotones; but islands, especially smaller ones, are dominated by the ecotone where land meets sea. The littoral ecotone helps explain many of the distinctive qualities of island economies and the adaptability, dynamism, and resilience of island societies. It adds to the extensive revisionist literature that has already challenged the myth of island isolation, boundedness, and remoteness.