Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de los Andes, A.A. 4976, Bogotá, Colombia.
Ecol Lett. 2014 Sep;17(9):1077-85. doi: 10.1111/ele.12310. Epub 2014 Jun 12.
Saturation is the idea that a community is effectively filled with species, such that no more can be added without extinctions. This concept has important implications for many areas of ecology, such as species richness, community assembly, invasive species and climate change. Here, we illustrate how biogeography can be used to test for community saturation, when combined with data on local species richness, phylogeny and climate. We focus on a clade of frogs (Terrarana) and the impact of the Great American Biotic Interchange on patterns of local richness in Lower Middle America and adjacent regions. We analyse data on species richness at 83 sites and a time-calibrated phylogeny for 363 species. We find no evidence for saturation, and show instead that biotic interchange dramatically increased local richness in the region. We suggest that historical biogeography offers thousands of similar long-term natural experiments that can be used to test for saturation.
饱和度是指一个群落中物种的丰富度已经达到了极限，以至于无法再添加更多的物种而不导致物种灭绝。这个概念对生态学的许多领域都有重要的影响，如物种丰富度、群落组装、入侵物种和气候变化。在这里，我们结合当地物种丰富度、系统发育和气候的数据，说明了生物地理学如何用于检验群落饱和度。我们以青蛙的一个分支（Terrarana）为研究对象，探讨了大美洲生物大交换对中美低地和邻近地区局部物种丰富度模式的影响。我们分析了 83 个地点的物种丰富度数据和 363 个物种的时间校准系统发育关系。我们没有发现饱和度的证据，反而表明生物大交换极大地增加了该地区的局部丰富度。我们认为，历史生物地理学提供了数以千计的类似长期自然实验，可以用来检验饱和度。
