Equilibrium Bird Species Diversity in Atlantic Islands

Current Biology : CB
Luis ValenteRalph Tiedemann

Abstract

Half a century ago, MacArthur and Wilson proposed that the number of species on islands tends toward a dynamic equilibrium diversity around which species richness fluctuates [1]. The current prevailing view in island biogeography accepts the fundamentals of MacArthur and Wilson's theory [2] but questions whether their prediction of equilibrium can be fulfilled over evolutionary timescales, given the unpredictable and ever-changing nature of island geological and biotic features [3-7]. Here we conduct a complete molecular phylogenetic survey of the terrestrial bird species from four oceanic archipelagos that make up the diverse Macaronesian bioregion-the Azores, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, and Madeira [8, 9]. We estimate the times at which birds colonized and speciated in the four archipelagos, including many previously unsampled endemic and non-endemic taxa and their closest continental relatives. We develop and fit a new multi-archipelago dynamic stochastic model to these data, explicitly incorporating information from 91 taxa, both extant and extinct. Remarkably, we find that all four archipelagos have independently achieved and maintained a dynamic equilibrium over millions of years. Biogeographical rates are homogeneous...Continue Reading

Associated Datasets

May 4, 2017·Luis ValenteRalph Tiedemann

Citations

May 8, 2018·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Ingrid OlivaresMichael Kessler
Oct 26, 2018·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Sergei V DrovetskiGary Voelker
Jan 5, 2019·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Sérgio P ÁvilaMarkes E Johnson
Sep 2, 2017·Science·Robert J WhittakerKostas A Triantis
Aug 26, 2020·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Xia Hua, Lindell Bromham
Mar 4, 2020·Nature·Kostas A Triantis, Thomas J Matthews
Apr 22, 2020·ELife·Kira DelmoreMiriam Liedvogel
Dec 4, 2019·Ecology and Evolution·Claire ArmstrongDavid S Richardson
Feb 23, 2020·Nature·Luis ValenteRampal S Etienne
Jun 3, 2021·Cells·Emily R A CramerJan T Lifjeld

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