Data from: Comparison of Natural and Nonnative Two-Species Communities of Anolis Lizards

Human-mediated colonizations present an informative model system for understanding assembly of organismal communities. However, it is unclear whether communities including naturalized species are accurate analogs of natural communities or unique combinations not present in nature. I compared morphology and phylogenetic structure of natural and naturalized two-species communities of Anolis lizards. Natural communities are phylogenetically clustered, whereas naturalized communities show no significant phylogenetic structure. This result likely reflects differences in colonization pools for these communities—that is, invasion from anywhere for naturalized communities but from proximal and thus phylogenetically close lineages in natural communities. Both natural and naturalized communities each include pairs of species that are significantly similar to each other in morphology, and both sets of communities are composed of species that possess traits of good colonizers. These similarities suggest that the formation of natural and naturalized communities may be at least partially governed by similar processes. Human-mediated invasions may be credibly viewed as modern incarnations of natural colonizations in this case.

人类介导的生物定殖事件，为解析生物群落的组装机制提供了极具价值的模型系统。然而，目前仍不明确：包含归化物种的群落，究竟可作为自然群落的精准类比对象，还是属于自然界中从未存在过的独特组合。本研究以安乐蜥（Anolis）的两物种种落为对象，对比分析了其中自然群落与归化群落的形态特征及系统发育结构。研究结果显示，自然群落呈现系统发育聚集特征，而归化群落则未表现出显著的系统发育结构。该结果或反映两类群落的定殖源库差异：换言之，归化群落的物种可源自任意区域的迁入，而自然群落的物种则仅来自近缘且系统发育关系紧密的支系。自然群落与归化群落均包含形态特征显著相似的物种种对，且两类群落的组成物种均具备优秀定殖能力的性状特征。上述相似性表明，自然群落与归化群落的形成过程，至少在部分层面上遵循相似的机制。就此研究案例而言，人类介导的物种入侵事件可被合理视为自然定殖过程的现代重现形式。