Division of Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park, Ascot, Berkshire, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2011 Sep 12;366(1577):2514-25. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0022.
Species-area relationships (SARs) have mostly been treated from an ecological perspective, focusing on immigration, local extinction and resource-based limits to species coexistence. However, a full understanding across large regions is impossible without also considering speciation and global extinction. Rates of both speciation and extinction are known to be strongly affected by area and thus should contribute to spatial patterns of diversity. Here, we explore how variation in diversification rates and ecologically mediated diversity limits among regions of different sizes can result in the formation of SARs. We explain how this area-related variation in diversification can be caused by either the direct effects of area or the effects of factors that are highly correlated with area, such as habitat diversity and population size. We also review environmental, clade-specific and historical factors that affect diversification and diversity limits but are not highly correlated with region area, and thus are likely to cause scatter in observed SARs. We present new analyses using data on the distributions, ages and traits of mammalian species to illustrate these mechanisms; in doing so we provide an integrated perspective on the evolutionary processes shaping SARs.
物种-面积关系（SARs）主要从生态角度进行研究，侧重于物种共存的迁入、本地灭绝和基于资源的限制。然而，如果不考虑物种形成和全球灭绝，就不可能对大区域有全面的了解。物种形成和灭绝的速度都已知受到面积的强烈影响，因此应该有助于多样性的空间格局。在这里，我们探讨了不同大小区域之间的多样化率和生态介导的多样性限制的变化如何导致 SARs 的形成。我们解释了这种与面积相关的多样化变化是如何由面积的直接影响或与面积高度相关的因素的影响引起的，例如栖息地多样性和种群规模。我们还回顾了影响多样化和多样性限制的环境、分支特异性和历史因素，但与区域面积没有高度相关，因此很可能导致观察到的 SAR 出现离散。我们使用有关哺乳动物物种分布、年龄和特征的数据进行了新的分析，以说明这些机制；这样做，我们就为塑造 SAR 的进化过程提供了一个综合的视角。
