[Sharing the request made to the participants of the Island Biology conference]

We are delighted to invite you to collaborate in the challenging and exciting task of identifying 50 fundamental questions in island biology, by carrying out the following survey for the first round of voting.

This survey includes 184 questions identified by the “50 fundamental questions in island biology working group” (more details about the participants are provided at the end of the email). These 184 questions are distributed across four different surveys that represent 4 main topics in island biology, as follows:

I) Island (Macro)Ecology and Biogeography (52 questions)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdP2rL9Gkze8tssFSD00s6p3jQHRVXMFfmScfoyHNQuHVtc2A/viewform

II) Island (Macro)Evolution (63 questions)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvyP590WXy8FqD2j-zK_Qhy3qXDEtatYRBNytuGojfcuRqPg/viewform

III) Island Community Ecology (27 questions)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeoG9Ai5FEaWeBXL5qIaT7dCwrzAOOLoNyEYWk246HAXWHaAA/viewform

IV) Island Conservation and Management (45 questions)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHfsb_4jv0HIySPAM-dUBPa3enS_2Xrpb1Txm4r_e3eP5K_Q/viewform

At the end of each of the four surveys, participants will have the opportunity of suggesting a single question that they think should be included in a top 50 list, but that was not included in the survey. Please feel free to participate in any survey/s that you feel fall in your area of expertise and/or interest. It is important to remind you will have until the evening (21.00 pm) of Sunday July 31st to vote.

We would also like to remind you here of the main steps that will be taken once the results of the first survey have been analysed:

            a) Ranking of the newly suggested questions by each Island Biology 2016 attendee. This will be done by vote among the collaborators listed below.

            b) Incorporation of new questions into the list. Both the 80 top questions from the first vote (list 1), and the new questions (list 2) comprise two ranked lists. By vote among the collaborators listed below, questions from the bottom of list 1 will be assessed for replacement, proceeding from the top of list 2, until the first instance of non-replacement.

            b) A second and final online voting for the 80 questions defined in (b). This will involve a broader audience that will include island biologists who were not able to attend the conference.

We really hope you will find this initiative of interest and we look forward to receiving your feedback to define the 50 top questions in island biology. 

Thank you very much, in advance, for your collaboration.

All the best,

Jairo on behalf of the 50 fundamental questions in island biology working group

ps. List of collaborators: Paulo A.V. Borges, Jose M. Fernandez-Palacios, Robert J. Whittaker, Claudine Ah-Peng, Miguel Araujo, Sergio Avila, Erick de Boer, Pedro Cardoso, Josselin Cornuault, Lea de Nascimento, Artur Gil, Aaron Gonzalez, Daniel Gruner, Ana Guida Santos, Ruben Heleno, Joaquin Hortal, Juan Carlos Illera, Christopher Kaiser-Bunbury, Tom Matthews, Anna Papadopoulou, Nathalie Pettorelli, Jonathan Price, Manuel Steinbauer, Kostas Triantis, Luis Valente, Pablo Vargas, Patrick Weigelt, Brent Emerson