Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T13:03:34.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Species–Area Relationship: Both General and Protean?

from Part I - Introduction and History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2021

By
Thomas J. Matthews ,
Kostas A. Triantis  and
Robert J. Whittaker
Edited by
Thomas J. Matthews ,
Kostas A. Triantis  and
Robert J. Whittaker
Thomas J. Matthews
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
Kostas A. Triantis
Affiliation:
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Robert J. Whittaker
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

We briefly describe the species-area relationship (SAR) and summarize the different types, including the main dichotomy of island species–area relationship (ISAR) and species accumulation curves (SAC). We discuss the classification of the ISAR as a fundamental ecological law, despite its protean nature. Exploring this protean behaviour, we review the different ways in which ISAR form has been shown to vary between datasets. The final section outlines the structure of the book and provides a summary of the remaining chapters.

Keywords

Power modelisland species–area relationshipscalediversity–area relationshipspecies accumulation curveconservation
Type
Chapter
Information
The Species–Area Relationship
Theory and Application
 , pp. 3 - 19
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baiser, B. & Li, D. (2018) Comparing species–area relationships of native and exotic species. Biological Invasions, 20, 3647–3658.Google Scholar
Bolgovics, Á., Ács, É., Várbíró, G., Görgényi, J. & Borics, G. (2015) Species–area relationship (SAR) for benthic diatoms: A study on aquatic islands. Hydrobiologia, 764, 91–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connor, E. F. & McCoy, E. D. (1979) Statistics and biology of the species–area relationship. The American Naturalist, 113, 791–833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dengler, J. (2009) Which function describes the species–area relationship best? A review and empirical evaluation. Journal of Biogeography, 36, 728–744.Google Scholar
Dengler, J., Matthews, T. J., Steinbauer, M. J., Wolfrum, S., Boch, S., Chiarucci, A., Conradi, T., Dembicz, I., Marcenò, C., García‐Mijangos, I., Nowak, A., Storch, D., Ulrich, W., Campos, J. A., Cancellieri, L., Carboni, M., Ciaschetti, G., De Frenne, P., Dolezal, J., Dolnik, C., Essl, F., Fantinato, E., Filibeck, G., Grytnes, J.-A., Guarino, R., Güler, B., Janišová, M., Klichowska, E., Kozub, L., Kuzemko, A., Manthey, M., Mimet, A., Naqinezhad, A., Pedersen, C., Peet, R. K., Pellissier, V., Pielech, R., Potenza, G., Rosati, L., Terzi, M., Valkó, O., Vynokurov, D., White, H., Winkler, M. & Biurrun, I. (2020) Species–area relationships in continuous vegetation: Evidence from Palaearctic grasslands. Journal of Biogeography, 47, 72–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drakare, S., Lennon, J. J. & Hillebrand, H. (2006) The imprint of the geographical, evolutionary and ecological context on species–area relationships. Ecology Letters, 9, 215–227.Google Scholar
Gray, J. S., Ugland, K. I. & Lambshead, J. (2004) Species accumulation and species–area curves – A comment on Scheiner (2003). Global Ecology & Biogeography, 13, 473–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guilhaumon, F., Gimenez, O., Gaston, K. J. & Mouillot, D. (2008) Taxonomic and regional uncertainty in species–area relationships and the identification of richness hotspots. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 105, 15458–15463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hubbell, S. P. (2001) The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kraft, N. J. B., Valencia, R. & Ackerly, D. D. (2008) Functional traits and niche-based tree community assembly in an Amazonian forest. Science, 322, 580–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladle, R. (2009) Forecasting extinctions: Uncertainties and limitations. Diversity, 1, 133–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawton, J. H. (1999) Are there general laws in ecology? Oikos, 84, 177–192.Google Scholar
Leveau, L. M., Ruggiero, A., Matthews, T. J. & Bellocq, M. I. (2019) A global consistent positive effect of urban green area size on bird richness. Avian Research, 10, 30.Google Scholar
Lomolino, M. V. (2000) Ecology’s most general, yet protean pattern: The species–area relationship. Journal of Biogeography, 27, 17–26.Google Scholar
Lomolino, M. V., Riddle, B. R. & Whittaker, R. J. (2017) Biogeography. Biological diversity across space and time, 5th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Losos, J. B. & Parent, C. E. (2010) The speciation–area relationship. The theory of island biogeography revisited (ed. by Losos, J. B. and Ricklefs, R. E.), pp. 415–438. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
MacArthur, R. H. & Wilson, E. O. (1967) The theory of island biogeography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Matthews, T. J., Cottee‐Jones, H. E. & Whittaker, R. J. (2014) Habitat fragmentation and the species–area relationship: A focus on total species richness obscures the impact of habitat loss on habitat specialists. Diversity and Distributions, 20, 1136–1146.Google Scholar
Matthews, T. J., Guilhaumon, F., Triantis, K. A., Borregaard, M. K. & Whittaker, R. J. (2016a) On the form of species–area relationships in habitat islands and true islands. Global Ecology & Biogeography, 25, 847–858.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, T. J., Rigal, F., Triantis, K. A. & Whittaker, R. J. (2019) A global model of island species–area relationships. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 116, 12337–12342.Google Scholar
Matthews, T. J., Triantis, K. A., Rigal, F., Borregaard, M. K., Guilhaumon, F. & Whittaker, R. J. (2016b) Island species–area relationships and species accumulation curves are not equivalent: An analysis of habitat island datasets. Global Ecology & Biogeography, 25, 607–618.Google Scholar
Mazel, F., Renaud, J., Guilhaumon, F., Mouillot, D., Gravel, D. & Thuiller, W. (2015) Mammalian phylogenetic diversity–area relationships at a continental scale. Ecology, 96, 2814–2822.Google Scholar
McGuinness, K. A. (1984) Equations and explanations in the study of species–curves. Biological Reviews, 59, 423–440.Google Scholar
Neigel, J. E. (2003) Species–area relationships and marine conservation. Ecological Applications, 13, 138–145.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L. (1995) Species diversity in space and time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L. (1998) Preston’s ergodic conjecture: The accumulation of species in space and time. Biodiversity dynamics: Turnover of populations, taxa, and communities (ed. by McKinney, M. L. and Drake, J. A.), pp. 311–348. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L. (2001) Loss of speciation rate will impoverish future diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 98, 5404–5410.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L. (2003) Reconciliation ecology and the future of species diversity. Oryx, 37, 194–205.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, M. L. (2004) Applying species–area relationships to the conservation of diversity. Frontiers of biogeography: New directions in the geography of nature (ed. by Lomolino, M. V. and Heaney, L. R.), pp. 325–343. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates.Google Scholar
Scheiner, S. M. (2003) Six types of species–area curves. Global Ecology & Biogeography, 12, 441–447.Google Scholar
Schoener, T. W. (1976) The species–area relations within archipelagoes: Models and evidence from island land birds. Proceedings of the XVI International Ornithological Conference (ed. by Firth, H. J. and Calaby, J. H.), pp. 629–642. Canberra: Australian Academy of Science.Google Scholar
Shmida, A. & Wilson, M. V. (1985) Biological determinants of species diversity. Journal of Biogeography, 12, 1–20.Google Scholar
Si, X., Cadotte, M. W., Zhao, Y., Zhou, H., Zeng, D., Li, J., Jin, T., Ren, P., Wang, Y., Ding, P. & Tingley, M. W. (2018) The importance of accounting for imperfect detection when estimating functional and phylogenetic community structure. Ecology, 99, 2103–2112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tjørve, E. & Tjørve, K. M. C. (2017) Species–area relationship. eLS (Encyclopedia of Life Sciences Online), pp. 1–9. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Tjørve, E., Tjørve, K. M. C., Šizlingová, E. & Šizling, A. L. (2018) Great theories of species diversity in space and why they were forgotten: The beginnings of a spatial ecology and the Nordic early 20th-century botanists. Journal of Biogeography, 45, 530–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Triantis, K. A., Borges, P. A. V., Ladle, R. J., Hortal, J., Cardoso, P., Gaspar, C., Dinis, F., Mendonça, E., Silveira, L. M. A., Gabriel, R., Melo, C., Santos, A. M. C., Amorim, I. R., Ribeiro, S. P., Serrano, A. R. M., Quartau, J. A. & Whittaker, R. J. (2010) Extinction debt on oceanic islands. Ecography, 33, 285–294.Google Scholar
Triantis, K. A., Economo, E. P., Guilhaumon, F. & Ricklefs, R. E. (2015) Diversity regulation at macro-scales: Species richness on oceanic archipelagos. Global Ecology & Biogeography, 24, 594–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Triantis, K. A., Guilhaumon, F. & Whittaker, R. J. (2012) The island species–area relationship: Biology and statistics. Journal of Biogeography, 39, 215–231.Google Scholar
Triantis, K. A., Mylonas, M. & Whittaker, R. J. (2008) Evolutionary species–area curves as revealed by single‐island endemics: Insights for the interprovincial species–area relationship. Ecography, 31, 401–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, W. R. & Tjørve, E. (2005) Scale‐dependence in species–area relationships. Ecography, 28, 721–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, C. E., Harmon, L. J. & Seehausen, O. (2014) Cichlid species–area relationships are shaped by adaptive radiations that scale with area. Ecology Letters, 17, 583–592.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wardle, D. A., Zackrisson, O., Hörnberg, G. & Gallet, C. (1997) The influence of island area on ecosystem properties. Science, 277, 1296–1299.Google Scholar
Webb, C. O., Ackerly, D. D., McPeek, M. A. & Donoghue, M. J. (2002) Phylogenies and community ecology. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 33, 475–505.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. J. & Fernández-Palacios, J. M. (2007) Island biogeography: Ecology, evolution, and conservation, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. J. & Triantis, K. A. (2012) The species–area relationship: An exploration of that ‘most general, yet protean pattern’. Journal of Biogeography, 39, 623–626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittaker, R. J., Araújo, M. B., Jepson, P., Ladle, R. J., Watson, J. E. M. & Willis, K. J. (2005) Conservation biogeography: Assessment and prospect. Diversity and Distributions, 11, 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittaker, R. J., Fernández-Palacios, J. M., Matthews, T. J., Borregaard, M. K. & Triantis, K. A. (2017) Island biogeography: Taking the long view of nature’s laboratories. Science, 357, eaam8326.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. J., Rigal, F., Borges, P. A. V., Cardoso, P., Terzopoulou, S., Casanoves, F., Pla, L., Guilhaumon, F., Ladle, R. J. & Triantis, K. (2014) Functional biogeography of oceanic islands and the scaling of functional diversity in the Azores. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 111, 13709–13714.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. J., Willis, K. J. & Field, R. (2001) Scale and species richness: Towards a general, hierarchical theory of species diversity. Journal of Biogeography, 28, 453–470.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. (1961) The nature of the taxon cycle in the Melanesian ant fauna. The American Naturalist, 95, 169–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×