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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Neutral biodiversity theory can explain the imbalance of phylogenetic trees but not the tempo of their diversification
Evolution, Volume 65, No. 7, Year 2011
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Description
Numerous evolutionary studies have sought to explain the distribution of diversity across the limbs of the tree of life. At the same time, ecological studies have sought to explain differences in diversity and relative abundance within and among ecological communities. Traditionally, these patterns have been considered separately, but models that consider processes operating at the level of individuals, such as neutral biodiversity theory (NBT), can provide a link between them. Here, we compare evolutionary dynamics across a suite of NBT models. We show that NBT can yield phylogenetic tree topologies with imbalance closely resembling empirical observations. In general, metacommunities that exhibit greater disparity in abundance are characterized by more imbalanced phylogenetic trees. However, NBT fails to capture the tempo of diversification as represented by the distribution of branching events through time. We suggest that population-level processes might therefore help explain the asymmetry of phylogenetic trees, but that tree shape might mislead estimates of evolutionary rates unless the diversification process is modeled explicitly. © 2011 The Author(s). Evolution© 2011 The Society for the Study of Evolution..
Authors & Co-Authors
Davies, T. Jonathan
United States, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
Canada, Montreal
Université Mcgill
Allen, Andrew P.
Australia, Sydney
Macquarie University
Borda-De-Água, Luís
United States, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
Portugal, Lisbon
Universidade de Lisboa
Regetz, James
United States, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
Statistics
Citations: 59
Authors: 4
Affiliations: 6
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01265.x
ISSN:
15585646
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study