Lecture
Lorentz Lecture - Why study islands?
- José María Fernández-Palacios
- Date
- Tuesday 11 November 2025
- Time
- Address
- Rijksmuseum Boerhaave
Lange Sint Agnietenstraat 9
2312WS Leiden - Room
- Lecture Hall
Why study islands? An introduction to the insular animal world.
Although islands together make up only about 6.7% of the world’s total above-water surface, they contributed with an outstanding 20% to the global biodiversity.
Unfortunately as well with 50% of the threatened species and up to 75% of the species extinctions known since the European expansion throughout the world. Amongst them; volcanic islands, continental fragments and tropical land-bridge islands are by far the islands with the largest contribution to global biodiversity and also to species threatened or extinct.
Islands are the place where the sixth mass extinction -the one attributable to human activity- is currently happening. To understand how species adapt or go extinct as island environments change, integrating biology and geology is crucial. This lecture will explore what we have learned and what research is being done to prevent an even worse outcome.
About the speaker
José María Fernández-Palacios has been a Full Professor of Ecology at the University of La Laguna in Spain since 2011, and the coördinator of the Island Ecology and Biogeography Research Group at the same university. His research focuses include: Island Ecology and Biogeography, Laurisilva and Pine Forest Dynamics, Paleoecology, Functional island Biogeography and Carbon Sequestration. He has authored around 300 publications, as well as a dozen books related to Island Ecology in general and the Canary Islands in particular. He has secured approximately 1 million euros over the last 10 years through competitive grants and research contracts as the Principal Investigator. He is the current President of the Society of Island Biology (SIB).