Data for: Contemporizing island biogeography theory with anthropogenic drivers of species richness

Aim: Island biogeography theory states that species richness increases
with habitat diversity and decreases with isolation from source pools.
However, ecological theory must incorporate effects of human activity to
explain contemporary patterns of biodiversity. We contemporized island
biogeography theory by conceptualizing island trajectories of how species
richness changes over time with accelerating land development and economic
trade, which increase extinction and immigration rates, respectively. With
this contemporized theory, we then articulate and empirically assess
expected relationships of native, introduced, and total species richness
with natural and anthropogenic metrics of habitat diversity and isolation
from source pools. Location: Greater Caribbean region. Time period:
Database finalized in 2020. Methods: We built a database of 1075 native
and introduced reptiles and amphibians (herps) for 840 Caribbean islands.
For each island, we calculated natural and anthropogenic metrics of island
habitat diversity and isolation from source pools and used linear model
averaging to assess the expected relationships under the contemporized
theory for 15 major herp clades. Results: Natural habitat diversity
metrics exhibited positive relationships with native and introduced
species richness, strengthening total species richness–area relationships
across herp clades. Geographic isolation exhibited negative relationships
with native and positive relationships with introduced species richness,
weakening total species richness–isolation relationships. Economic area,
based on developed land, and economic isolation, based on maritime trade,
exhibited negative relationships with native species richness, but
positive and negative relationships, respectively, with introduced species
richness. Total species richness relationships with these two
anthropogenic metrics were strongest in clades with many introduced
species. Main conclusion: A contemporized island biogeographic theory that
includes the effects of land development and economic trade on species
extinction and immigration explained current Caribbean herp species
richness patterns. As human activity continues to accelerate, the
contemporized theory we articulate here will increasingly predict island
biogeography of the Anthropocene.