Island archipelago, smaller area island species richness is all colonization, larger islands
speciation becomes more important (Losos/Schluter)
local community structure at the alpha and also beta level.
Threshold where increasing area facilitates local speciation
Or maybe the inflection point doesn’t represent when speciation kicks in, but it does inflect still (cichlids)
How to account for time? How to account for rate of local diversification?
Less diversification/more diversification on the x-axis, so it could be area or time, or both.
Looking for plot level data across archipelagos
Insular systems where local diversification is relevant
If sequence data is available it might be possible to slap on Fst in addition to beta diversity, to explain increase in richness with area.
Is the archipelago a hotspot or not, interested in exploring other (continental) datasets?
Accounting for lumpy vs splitty taxa
Products
One paper with Luke leading. Data analysis. Review/Synthesis (maybe a model component).
Meta-analysis/mixed model including trees (HI), Azores insects, galapagos, anything else they can get hands on
Radiations
Data analysis
Taking big phylogenies including both island and mainland slices to ask questions about diversification within the island
Compare island and mainland clades of similar ages to identify whether there’s something special in the clade structure that explains radiation propensity.
Somehow incorporating abundances
Somehow incorporating Fst
Do lineages that radiate in islands have closely related lineages that radiate in the mainland?
When is the mainland the mainland?
Model
Gavrilets and Voehs extension (a complicated model of radiations on islands, different resources, different resource preferences)
generates predictions of macroevolution and macroecology
We don’t like the speciation concept in this model, so we could build a better speciation mechanism.
Could it be that truly neutral individual based models could generate phylogenies that sometimes generate clades that radiate wildly?
Products
Large analysis of islands that include taxonomic and phylogenetic data (including island birds and trees)
Which radiations are endemic which are singletons.
Need regional species level tree that represents potential colonists
Another product could be a more advanced model. Whether to incorporate this in the MESS model is an open question. Whether to construct as an individual model or a species model is also an open question.