A kīpuka is an area of land surrounded by one or more younger
lava flows. A kīpuka forms when lava flows on either side of a
hill,
ridge
A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...
, or older
lava dome
In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...
as it moves downslope or spreads from its source. Older and more weathered than their surroundings, kīpukas often appear to be like islands within a sea of lava flows. They are often covered with
soil and late
ecological succession
Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less.
Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as ca ...
al
vegetation that provide visual contrast as well as habitat for animals in an otherwise inhospitable environment. In volcanic landscapes, kīpukas play an important role as biological reservoirs or refugia for plants and animals, from which the covered land can be recolonized.
Etymology
Kīpuka, along with ''
aā'' and ''
pāhoehoe'', are
Hawaiian words related to
volcanology that have entered the
lexicon
A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...
of
geology. Descriptive proverbs and poetical sayings in Hawaiian oral tradition also use the word, in an allusive sense, to mean a place where life or culture endures, regardless of any encroachment or interference. By extension, from the appearance of island "patches" within a highly contrasted background, any similarly noticeable variation or change of form, such as an opening in a forest, or a clear place in a congested setting, may be colloquially called ''kīpuka''.
Significance to research
Kīpuka provides useful study sites for
ecological research because they facilitate
replication
Replication may refer to:
Science
* Replication (scientific method), one of the main principles of the scientific method, a.k.a. reproducibility
** Replication (statistics), the repetition of a test or complete experiment
** Replication crisi ...
; multiple ''kīpuka'' in a system (isolated by the same lava flow) will tend to have uniform
substrate
Substrate may refer to:
Physical layers
*Substrate (biology), the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the surface or medium on which an organism grows or is attached
** Substrate (locomotion), the surface over which an organism lo ...
age and successional characteristics, but are often isolated-enough from their neighbors to provide meaningful, comparable differences in size,
invasion, etc. They are also receptive to experimental
treatments. ''Kīpuka'' along
Saddle Road
Route 200, known locally as Saddle Road, traverses the width of the Island of Hawaii, from downtown Hilo to its junction with Hawaii Route 190 near Waimea. The road was once considered one of the most dangerous paved roads in the state, with ...
on
Hawaii have served as the natural laboratory for a variety of studies, examining ecological principles like
island biogeography,
food web control, and
biotic resistance to invasiveness. In addition, ''
Drosophila silvestris
''Drosophila silvestris'' is a large species of fly in the family Drosophilidae that are primarily black with yellow spots. As a rare species of fruit fly endemic to Hawaii (“the Big Island”), the fly often experiences reproductive isolatio ...
'' populations inhabit kīpukas, making kīpukas useful for understanding the fragmented population structure and
reproductive isolation
The mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a collection of evolutionary mechanisms, behaviors and physiological processes critical for speciation. They prevent members of different species from producing offspring, or ensure that any offspring ...
of this fly species.
See also
*
References
External links
USGS Photo Glossary: Kipuka
Volcanic landforms
Ecology
Hawaiian words and phrases
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