Spring 2010
NRES 701A:
The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity and Biogeography
summary
Stephen Hubbell’s unified neutral theory of biodiversity and biogeography has been one of the most controversial scientific ideas since its publication nearly one decade ago. Hubbell proposed that adding the process of speciation to MacArthur and Wilson’s theory of island biogeography resulted in a unified theory explaining relative species abundance and diversity. The aim of this seminar is to examine the philosophy, theoretical grounds, empirical evidence, and evolution of Hubbell’s theory from its formulation until present.
week
date
topic
reading(s)
leader
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth (Beth) Leger
Time: Fridays, 10:30 to noon
Location: Fleishman Agriculture (FA) 219
Email: eleger AT cabnr DOT unr DOT edu
Office location: Fleishman Agriculture (FA) 130
Office phone: 775.784.7582
Office hours: by appointment
schedule
1
INTRODUCTION
Organizational meeting
22/01/10
2
PHILOSOPHY
Neutrality and null models
Caswell 1976
Gotelli and Graves 1996
Gotelli and McGill 2006
29/01/10
3
The foundations of the theory
MacArthur and Wilson 1963
Hubbell 2001 (chapter 1)
05/02/10
4
Niche-assembly perspectives
Diamond 1975 (photocopied)
Connor and Simberloff 1979
Belyea and Lancaster 1999
12/02/10
5
Hubbell 2001
MacArthur 1957
MacArthur 1960
19/02/10
6
Other theories of species abundance
26/02/10
7
General reviews
Chave 2004
Alonso et al. 2006
Hu et al. 2006
05/03/10
8
THEORY
On sampling
Alonso and McKane 2004
Etienne and Alonso 2005
12/03/10
10
On the species independence assumption
Pueyo et al. 2007
Volkov et al. 2009
26/03/10
11
On the stochastic patch occupancy approach
Kadmon and Allouche 2007
Allouche and Kadmon 2009
02/04/10
12
On the spatially explicit approach
Rosindell and Cornell 2009
O’Dwyer and Green 2010
09/04/10
13
On the size-structured approach
O’Dwyer et al. 2009
16/04/10
14
On speciation dynamics under neutrality
Etienne et al. 2007
Aguiar et al. 2009
23/04/10
15
SUMMARY
Testing neutral theory
McGill et al. 2006
30/04/10
Recap and possibilities for further extensions
Hubbell 2001 (Chapter 10; book or see me)
Leibold and McPeek 2006
miscellaneous information
Forister 2009
Stokstad 2009
9
19/03/10
download all readings (except photocopied chapters; .zip)
download all citations (Endnote library; .enl)
EVIDENCE
Fisher et al. 1943
Preston 1948
Preston 1962
Beeravolu et al. 2009
Daleo et al. 2009
