Understanding Hawaiian Islands

" Since Hawaii is made up of a chronological sequence of islands, Gillespie has been able to investigate the spider's adaptative radiation over the course of history in what she describes as a "natural temporal laboratory" of evolutions. Kauai, the oldest of the islands, was founded 5 million years ago, followed by Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui and eventually the large Isle of Hawaii, the youngest of the islands with less than 1 million years.

He found 16 types of Tetragnatha spider, all of which have given up netting, are active hunters and have long spikes along their heels. Investigating the spider genome, she found that the 16 spider genus originated from a shared forebear who lived on the oldest of the islands, Kauai, 5 million years ago, at the beginning of the island's ancestry.

Her research investigated the environmental role of various different kinds of spider by mapping their behaviour pattern and determining which bugs they ate. It also used the spider genome to build a pedigree representing the evolution of the Tetragnathasp. There are four different environmental or eco-morphic groups: the "green" group living on leafs; the "chestnut brown" group living mainly on mosses; the "small brown" group living between branches; and the "big brown" group living on treetree barks.

It was Gillespie who discovered that weaving can develop and differ from a unique type on the same isle. Thus, different kinds of arachnids were often more related on one of the islands to very different looking ecomorphic arachnids on the same isle than to similar looking islets.

A chestnut brown spreader on Oahu, for example, is related more closely to the lush spreader on the same isle than a chestnut brown spreader on Maui. Gillespie also found out that when alcoves become available on a new isle, weaving from other islands can move in to fill the places.

The small browns, for example, have scattered as new islands to create new ones. "It seems there is a breed between which the breeds can first fill the empty space in the community," Gillespie said. "Will it be a similar guy from another isle, by migration, or another guy from the same isle, by evolving transformation and adapt?

" The most interesting results of the survey were that the most diverse peak of spiders is Haleakala on Maui, a surprise as it is neither the oldest nor the mightiest. Types populate new islands as they are formed. In the course of the years, the types accumulate by evolutions and adjustment, which leads to more types, than the landmass can actually receive on a long-term basis.

In older islands, wildlife competes for land and other natural ressources until a balance is achieved so that there is only one environmental kind left on one of the older islands. Previous research has shown that more and more endangered animals accumulate until there is more than the fellowship can sustain.

This is when they are competing like crazy, and after a brief time only those that are best suited for coexistence will be left. The Gillespie paper concluded that there are basic parallels between the largely environmental ones that determine the creation of societies on a continental scale and the evolving ones that predominate the Hawaiian islands.

"She said, "This research suggested that the church meeting processes - the way niche areas are populated by a series of jointly adjusted varieties - are guided by universe-orientation. Gillespie has studied these spider genera and recorded a number of spider varieties that have never been known before. There is a great variety of habitats on the islands, as well as areas that are colder and humid and are in close contact with them.

But the downside of this exceptional variety, which has developed in isolation, is that it is vulnerable to the changes and invasions of endangered populations now flooded by people-trafficking. "There is a great risk of biodiversity loss on these islands," she said. "One part of my work is to document these types that have become so well suited to certain habitat and that clearly plays a pivotal part in the conservation of the mountains that make up the Hawaiian islands.

If they do not understand and acknowledge this part, these endangered varieties can become extinct without human beings being aware of what exists or why it is so unique.