Akīpuka is an area of land surrounded by one or more youngerlava flows. A kīpuka forms when lava flows on either side of ahill,ridge, or olderlava dome 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 withsoil and lateecological successionalvegetation 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.[1]
Kīpuka, along withʻaʻā andpāhoehoe, areHawaiian words related tovolcanology that have entered thelexicon ofgeology. 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.[2][3] 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 calledkīpuka.[4]
Kīpuka provides useful study sites forecological research because they facilitatereplication; multiplekīpuka in a system (isolated by the same lava flow) will tend to have uniformsubstrate 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 experimentaltreatments.Kīpuka alongSaddle Road onHawaiʻi have served as the natural laboratory for a variety of studies, examining ecological principles likeisland biogeography,[5]food web control,[6] andbiotic resistance to invasiveness.[7] In addition,Drosophila silvestris populations inhabit kīpukas, making kīpukas useful for understanding the fragmented population structure andreproductive isolation of this fly species.[8]
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