Data from: Plant diversity in oceanic archipelagos: realistic patterns emulated by an agent‐based computer simulation

Although islands as natural laboratories have held the attention of scientists for centuries, they continue to offer new study questions, especially in the context of the current biodiversity crisis. To date, habitat diversity on islands and spatial configuration of archipelagos have received less attention than classical island area and isolation. Moreover, in the field where experiments are impossible, correlative methods have dominated, despite the call for more mechanistic approaches. We developed an agent‐based computer simulation to study the effect of habitat diversity and archipelago configuration on plant species richness and composition in five archipelagos worldwide (Hawaii, Galapagos, Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Azores) and compared simulated diversity patterns to the empirical data. Habitat diversity proved to be an important factor to achieve realistic simulation results in all five archipelagos, whereas spatial structure of archipelagos was important in more elongated archipelagos. In most cases, simulation results correlate stronger with spermatophyte than with pteridophyte data, which we suggest can be attributed to the different dispersal and evolution rates of the two species groups. Correlation strength between simulated and observed diversity also varied among archipelagos, suggesting that geological and biogeographic histories of archipelagos have affected the species richness and composition on the islands. Our study demonstrates that a relatively simple computer simulation involving just a few essential processes can largely emulate patterns of archipelagic species richness and composition and serve as a powerful additional method to complement empirical approaches.

尽管岛屿作为天然实验室已吸引科学家关注数百年，但在当前全球生物多样性危机的背景下，其仍持续催生全新的研究课题。迄今为止，相较于经典岛屿生物地理学理论聚焦的岛屿面积与隔离程度，岛屿生境多样性及群岛空间构型的研究仍未得到足够重视。此外，在无法开展受控实验的研究领域，尽管学界呼吁采用更多机制性研究方法，但关联分析方法仍占据主导地位。本研究开发了一套基于智能体的计算机模拟模型，用以探究全球五大群岛（夏威夷、加拉帕戈斯、加那利群岛、佛得角群岛与亚速尔群岛）的生境多样性与群岛空间构型对植物物种丰富度及组成的影响，并将模拟得到的多样性格局与实证观测数据进行对比。研究结果表明，生境多样性是实现五大群岛逼真模拟效果的核心影响因素，而群岛空间结构则对狭长型群岛的模拟表现更为关键。多数情况下，模拟结果与种子植物（spermatophyte）数据的相关性显著高于蕨类植物（pteridophyte）数据，我们认为这可归因于两类植物群落在扩散能力与演化速率上的显著差异。模拟与观测多样性间的关联强度同样因群岛而异，这提示群岛的地质与生物地理历史会对岛屿的物种丰富度及组成产生显著影响。本研究证实，仅依托少数核心过程构建的相对简易的计算机模拟模型，即可在很大程度上复刻群岛物种丰富度与组成的空间格局，可作为补充实证研究方法的强有力工具。