A community composition island biogeography model was developed to explain and predict two community patterns (beta diversity and endemism) with the consideration of speciation, extinction and dispersal processes. Results showed that rate of speciation is positively and linearly associated with beta diversity and endemism, that is, increasing species rates typically could increase the percentage of both endemism and beta diversity. The influences of immigration and extinction rates on beta diversity and endemism are nonlinear, but with numerical simulation, I could observe that increasing extinction rates would lead to decreasing percentage of endemism and beta diversity. The role of immigration rate is very similar to that of speciation rate, having a positive relationship with beta diversity and endemism. Finally, I found that beta diversity is closely related to the percentage of endemism. The slope of this positive relationship is determined jointly by different combinations of speciation, extinction and immigration rates.
The role of habitat in avian community composition: physiognomy or floristics?
