A generalized model of island biogeography |
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Authors: | XiaoYong Chen Jing Jiao Xin Tong |
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Institution: | Department of Environmental Sciences, Tiantong National Observation Station for Forest Ecosystems, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China. xychen@des.ecnu.edu.cn |
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Abstract: | MacArthur and Wilson’s equilibrium theory is one of the most influential theories in ecology. Although evolution on islands
is to be important to island biodiversity, speciation has not been well integrated into island biogeography models. By incorporating
speciation and factors influencing it into the MacArthur-Wilson model, we propose a generalized model unifying ecological
and evolutionary processes and island features. Intra-island speciation may play an important role in both island species
richness and endemism, and the contribution of speciation to local species diversity may eventually be greater than that of
immigration under certain conditions. Those conditions are related to the per species speciation rate, per species extinction
rate, and island features, and they are independent of immigration rate. The model predicts that large islands will have a
high, though not the highest, proportional endemism when other parameters are fixed. Based on the generalized model, changes
in species richness and endemism on an oceanic island over time were predicted to be similar to empirical observations. Our
model provides an ideal starting point for re-evaluating the role of speciation and re-analyzing available data on island
species diversity, especially those biased by the MacArthur-Wilson model. |
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