Estimating parameters relevant to island biogeography: A new quantitative framework incorporating phylogeny, island ontogeny and diversity-(in)dependence

Background/Question/Methods

Models of island biology are increasingly incorporating processes that occur over evolutionary time scales. However, we still lack an island-centric framework that enables the estimation of parameters that are relevant to island biogeography from phylogenetic trees of insular taxa. In addition, we lack a quantitative means to study how changing island area and ecological opportunity influence community assembly over geological time in insular environments. We have developed a new quantitative framework that fully integrates phylogeny, island ontogeny (the idea that islands have a limited life cycle) and diversity-dependence of rates of species origination into classic island biogeography theory. Our model allows us to generate predictions about phylogenetic tree shape and species richness on islands of different ages and with a diverse range of ecological and physical characteristics. Our new framework differs from existing phylogeny-based methods in that its focus is on islands rather than on clades.

Results/Conclusions

We will describe how the model can be applied to phylogenetic data from real island biotas in order to estimate parameters that are relevant to island biogeography (such as island-specific rates of immigration, speciation and extinction). We will also provide a new set of expectations to deal with phylogenetic and phylogeographical datasets from islands.