Biogeography in the Sub-Arctic

There is no escaping the fact that the?island biogeography of the North Atlantic Region?is?singularly?peculiar. Sitting in?the?north of the Atlantic Ocean, these islands have been subjected to largescale shifts in climate over the last few million years, unlike the other island groups further south which were likelymorebuffered from thevicissitudes of Quaternary climate changes.?Uniquely for a groupof islandsthere is only one documented extinction?in the North Atlantic(the Great Auk), and those in the insects are local eventsrelating to species that are distributed throughout the Palaearctic region. Over half the insect species in Iceland and Greenlandare introduced. The faunas, excluding Greenland, are?predominantlyofPalaearctic?originand have close affinities with the faunas ofScandinavia andthe British Isles and.?These unique physical and biological characteristics have interested biologists and biogeographers for?centuries.? The key debates concerning?the?biogeography?of the North Atlantic islands?still?rumble on:?Do the biota reflect crypticrefugia?or otherwise, or tabula rasa and recolonization??How important were?human communities in shaping the existing biota and biogeographical patterns??Throw into this mix?current concerns over global warming,?and we can now ask,?how resilient is the biota to change, either natural or anthropogenic? This volume draws together a range of researchers with longstanding research interests in the region, from diverse?academic?backgrounds, to evaluatesome ofthese questions.