A hierarchical model of whole assemblage island biogeography

Although dispersal limitation is a central feature of most quantitative models of island biogeography (Rosindell and Phillimore 2011, Carvalho et al. 2015, Triantis et al. 2015, Valente et al. 2015), these models generally do not incorporate variability in dispersal abilities among species in the community (but see Sukumaran et al. 2016). Furthermore, statistical approaches to island biogeography often focus on aggregate patterns such as species–area curves while losing information about individual species and their differences (Rosenzweig 1995, Kéry and Royle 2008, Triantis et al. 2012). Similarly, multivariate methods in community ecology often operate on measures of aggregate community dissimilarity thereby eliminating information about individual species (Legendre and Legendre 2012). Here, we develop a novel statistical approach to modeling island biogeographic patterns that quantifies the effects of island area and spatial configuration (isolation) on community patterns, but deconstructs the biotic pattern based on species differences in how they respond to area and isolation. This allows us to address a series of questions about the roles of dispersal limitation, dispersal heterogeneity, and dispersal functional traits in driving island biogeography of birds in northern Melanesia, a classic system in biogeography. Ecography 39: 001–009, 2016 doi: 10.1111/ecog.02303 © 2016 The Authors. Ecography © 2016 Nordic Society Oikos Subject Editor: Douglas A. Kelt. Editor-in-Chief: Miguel Araújo. Accepted 22 July 2016