Data from: Patterns and processes in complex landscapes: testing alternative biogeographic hypotheses through integrated analysis of phylogeography and community ecology in Hawai'i

The Island of Hawai‘i is a dynamic assemblage of five volcanoes with wet
forest habitat currently existing in four distinct natural regions that
vary in area, age, and geographic isolation. In this complex landscape,
alternative assumptions of the relative importance of specific habitat
characteristics on evolutionary and ecological processes predict
strikingly different general patterns of local diversity and regional
similarity. In this study we compare alternative a priori hypotheses
against observed patterns within two distinct biological systems and
scales: community composition of wet forest vascular plant species and
mitochondrial and nuclear genes of Drosophila sproati, a wet forest
restricted endemic. All observed patterns display strong and similar
regional structuring, with the greatest local diversity found in Kohala
and the windward side of Mauna Loa, the least in Ka‘ū and Kona, and a
distinctive pattern of regional similarity that likely reflects the
historical development of this habitat on the island. These observations
largely corroborate a biogeographic model that integrates multiple lines
of evidence, including climatic reconstruction, over those relying on
single measures, such as current habitat configuration or substrate age.
This method of testing alternative hypotheses across biological systems
and scales is an innovative approach for understanding complex landscapes
and should prove valuable in diverse biogeographic systems.