Abstract
It has been hypothesized that nature reserves should be as circular as possible to maximize the total number of species conserved. Using multiple regression, we examined the relationship between species richness on oceanic islands and island shape for 33 data sets. After accounting for the effect of island area, island shape does not explain a significant amount of the residual variation in species number in more data sets than expected due to chance alone. We conclude that if the mechanisms controlling species richness on oceanic islands and isolated patches of terrestrial habitat are the same, then shape is not of major concern in the design of nature reserves.
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