Founder populations are essential to the study of island biogeography and island ecology . A natural " blank slate " is not easily found , but a classic series of studies on founder population effects was done following the catastrophic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa , which erased all life on the island . Another continuing study has been following the biocolonization of Surtsey , Iceland , a new volcanic island that erupted offshore between 1963 and 1967 . An earlier event , the Toba eruption in Sumatra about 73,000 years ago , covered some parts of India with of ash , and must have coated the Nicobar Islands and Andaman Islands , much nearer in the ash fallout cone , with life-smothering layers , forcing the restart of their biodiversity
Toba eruption
Toba catastrophe theory
Founder effect