Adding energy gradients and long-distance dispersal to a neutral model improves predictions of Madagascan bird diversity.

ABSTRACT: Macroecological patterns are likely the result of both stochastically neutral mechanisms and deterministic differences between species. In Madagascar, the simplest stochastically neutral hypothesis - the mid-domain effects (MDE) hypothesis - has already been rejected. However, rejecting the MDE hypothesis does not necessarily refute the existence of all other neutral mechanisms. Here, we test whether adding complexity to a basic neutral model improves predictions of biodiversity patterns. The simplest MDE model assumes that: (1) species' ranges are continuous and unfragmented, (2) are randomly located throughout the landscape, and (3) can be stacked independently and indefinitely. We designed a simulation based on neutral theory that allowed us to weaken each of these assumptions increment

SUBMITTER: Buschke FT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5513242 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature