Are planar areas adequate for the species–area relationship?

Fattorini, Simone

doi:10.1080/11250000701263513

Italian Journal of Zoology

2007

DOI: 10.1080/11250000701263513

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Are planar areas adequate for the species–area relationship?

Simone Fattorini

Abstract: The species-area relationship (SAR) is one of the best documented patterns in macroecology and has wider applications. Measures of areas used in SARs are planar surfaces, not true surface sizes. To explain this difference I assimilated islands to cones, where the cone base is the planar area, and the cone lateral surface is the actual island area. Then, I applied the power function to 20 real-world archipelagos using both the island planar area and the lateral surface area of a cone calculated using island ele… Show more

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Cited by 4 publications

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“…One question arising from these alternative models (ISARs, species–energy models, and the choros model) is whether the improvements in model fit arising from the use of more sophisticated measures of island carrying capacity might, in part, reflect the fact that the commonly used planar measures of island area do not adequately estimate the true resource space available to island species (Nogués‐Bravo and Araújo 2006, Fattorini 2007) thus detrimentally affecting the strength of ISARs and the estimates of the parameters of the ISAR models? In general, errors in area estimation based on planar area are likely to be significant only for archipelagos involving substantial variation in topography (Williamson 1988, Willerslev et al 2002, Fattorini 2007). To investigate this question we use measurements of the total surface area in five different island groups and a wide range of taxa.…”

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confidence: 99%

Measurements of area and the (island) species–area relationship: new directions for an old pattern

Triantis¹,

Bravo²,

Hortal³

et al. 2008

Oikos

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The speciesÁarea relationship is one of the strongest empirical generalizations in geographical ecology, yet controversy persists about some important questions concerning its causality and application. Here, using more accurate measures of island surface size for five different island systems, we show that increasing the accuracy of the estimation of area has negligible impact on the fit and form of the speciesÁarea relationship, even though our analyses included some of the most topographically diverse island groups in the world. In addition, we show that the inclusion of general measurements of environmental heterogeneity (in the form of the so-called choros model), can substantially improve the descriptive power of models of island species number. We suggest that quantification of other variables, apart from area, that are also critical for the establishment of biodiversity and at the same time have high explanatory power (such as island age, distance, productivity, energy, and environmental heterogeneity), is necessary if we are to build up a more predictive science of species richness variation across island systems.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurements of area and the (island) species–area relationship: new directions for an old pattern

Triantis¹,

Bravo²,

Hortal³

et al. 2008

Oikos

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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On the relationship between a resource based measure of geodiversity and broad scale biodiversity patterns

2010

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Geodiversity, (diversity of the geosphere) incorporates many of the environmental patterns and processes that are considered drivers of biodiversity. Components of geodiversity (climate, topography, geology and hydrology) can be considered in terms of their resource giving potential, where resources are taken as energy, water, space and nutrients. The total amount of these resources, along with their spatial and temporal variation, is herein proposed as a compound index of geodiversity that has the potential to model broad scale biodiversity patterns. This paper outlines potential datasets that could be used to represent geodiversity, and then reviews the theoretical links between each element of the proposed compound index of geodiversity (overall resource availability, temporal variation and spatial variation in those resources) and broad-scale patterns of biodiversity. Support for the influence of each of the elements of geodiversity on overall biodiversity patterns was found in the literature, although the majority of relevant research focuses on resource availability, particularly available energy. The links between temporal and spatial variation in resources and biodiversity have been less thoroughly investigated in the literature. For the most part, it was reported that overall resource availability, temporal variation and spatial variation in those resources do not act in isolation in terms of controlling biodiversity. Overall there are sufficient datasets to calculate the proposed compound index of geodiversity, and evidence in the literature for links between the geographical distribution of biodiversity and each of the elements of the compound index defined. Since data for measuring geodiversity is more spatially consistent and widely available (thanks to satellite remote sensing) geodiversity has potential as a conservation planning tool, especially where biological data are not available or sparsely distributed.

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Biogeographical determinants of pteridophytes and spermatophytes on oceanic archipelagos

Chiarucci

Bacaro

Triantis

et al. 2011

Systematics and Biodiversity

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Using the data from six oceanic archipelagos, we investigated the species richness patterns on islands for all natives, archipelagic endemics and single-island endemics of pteridophytes and spermatophytes. We tested the hypothesis that the descriptive ability of biogeographical factors for species is reduced as we move from native species, to archipelagic endemics and to single island endemics, because of the increasing importance of island ‘idiosyncrasies’ (i.e. unique features of each island shaping its biota, such as catastrophic volcanic eruptions, random colonization events, mega-landslides) in controlling the species richness of endemic species. This hypothesis was addressed using two approaches: (1) the island species–area relationships (ISARs), and (2) a multiple regression approach with variable selection based on permutation, to test the combined effects of island area with other biogeographical factors. Area was an effective predictor of species richness for all native species (R 2 = 0.568 and R 2 = 0.624 for pteridophytes and spermatophytes respectively), but its predictive capacity decreased for archipelagic endemics (R 2 = 0.261 and R 2 = 0.531) and single-island endemics (R 2 = 0.084 and R 2 = 0.438). The reduction of R 2 from all native species, to archipelagic endemics and to single-island endemics was attributed to the increasing effects of the ‘idiosyncrasies’ of each island. The predictive capacity of multiple regression models increased with respect to ISARs, ranging from 27.3% (for single-island endemic pteridophytes) to 83.3% (all native pteridophytes), and included three to five predictors. Island area remained the most important variable for spermatophytes but was less important for pteridophytes. For pteridophytes, elevation was the most important predictor for native species, while isolation-related variables were the most important predictors for archipelagic endemics and single-island endemics. Our results support the hypothesis that as we move from native, to archipelagic endemic and to single-island endemic species the predictive ability of models is reduced, indicating an increased effect of the ‘idiosyncratic’ character of islands

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Are planar areas adequate for the species–area relationship?

Cited by 4 publications

References 36 publications

Measurements of area and the (island) species–area relationship: new directions for an old pattern

Measurements of area and the (island) species–area relationship: new directions for an old pattern

On the relationship between a resource based measure of geodiversity and broad scale biodiversity patterns

Biogeographical determinants of pteridophytes and spermatophytes on oceanic archipelagos

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