Data from: Diversity and tectonics: predictions from neutral theory

Numerical simulations of neutral metacommunities are used here to predict the effects of growth and shrinkage of metacommunities, as well as their separation and merging caused by continental collision and rifting and their secondary eustatic effects. Although growth and shrinkage of metacommunities predictably change diversity, separating and merging metacommunities have counterintuitive effects. Separating and merging metacommunities changes diversity within the individual areas, especially so for smaller areas, but they cause no change in total diversity of the system, contrary to previous predictions. The response times of metacommunities are likely to be geologically undetectable except for enormously large systems. These models can be used to predict the plate-tectonic effects on the diversity of terrestrial, coastal-marine, deep-marine, and oceanic island systems. Of these, global and regional coastal-marine systems are the most acutely sensitive to the changes in area and fragmentation caused by plate tectonics. Oceanic island systems also experience global and regional changes in diversity during supercontinent breakup and assembly, with the global effects driven by the changing length of volcanic arcs, and the regional effects also driven by secondary eustatic changes in shallow-marine area. Although individual terrestrial provinces or continents may experience substantial changes in diversity from rifting and collision, global terrestrial diversity should be unchanged except for the relatively modest contributions caused by the secondary eustatic effects on land area. These changes in diversity may be reinforced or counteracted by the changing latitudinal position of metacommunities.

本研究采用中性元群落（neutral metacommunities）数值模拟方法，用以预测元群落的扩张与收缩过程，以及由大陆碰撞、裂谷作用引发的元群落分离与合并现象及其伴随的次生海平面变化效应。尽管元群落的扩张与收缩会按预期改变群落多样性，但元群落的分离与合并却呈现出反直觉的影响：此类操作会改变各单个区域内的多样性，其中小型区域的多样性变化尤为显著，但与此前的预测相悖，它们并不会改变整个系统的总多样性。元群落的响应时间在地质尺度上几乎无法被检测到，除非是规模极其庞大的系统。上述模型可用于预测板块构造对陆地、近岸海洋、深海海洋以及大洋岛屿生态系统多样性的影响，其中全球及区域性近岸海洋系统对板块构造引发的面积变化与生境破碎化最为敏感。大洋岛屿生态系统在超大陆裂解与聚合过程中，同样会经历全球与区域性的多样性变化，其中全球尺度的变化由火山弧长度的改变驱动，而区域性变化则还受浅海区域次生海平面变化的影响。尽管单个陆地生物群区或大陆可能因裂谷作用与碰撞事件出现多样性的显著变化，但全球陆地总多样性应保持稳定，仅会受到次生海平面变化对陆地面积影响带来的相对小幅改变，而元群落纬度位置的改变可能会强化或抵消这类多样性变化。