Florian Hartig Theoretical Ecology & Ecological Data Science

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Is there a robust effect of mainland mutualism rates on species richness of oceanic islands?

Maximilian Pichler, Florian Hartig

arXiv (2024)
Cite this
@article{pichler2024mainland,
  author = {Maximilian Pichler and Florian Hartig},
  title = {Is there a robust effect of mainland mutualism rates on species richness of oceanic islands?},
  journal = {arXiv},
  year = {2024},
}

Cited by 1 (Google Scholar), as of 07 September 2026

Preprint

Abstract

In island biogeography, it is widely accepted that species richness on island depends on the area and isolation of the island as well as the species pool on the mainland. Delavaux et al. (2024) suggest that species richness on oceanic islands also depends on the proportion of mutualists on the mainland, based on the idea that mutualists require specific interaction partners for their survival and thus have lower chances of establishment after successful immigration. As the proportion of mutualists increases towards the tropics, this effect could explain a weaker latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) for oceanic islands. However, after re-analyzing their data, we have doubts if these conclusions are supported by the available data.

What the paper shows and why it matters (AI-generated)

A short, pointed re-analysis rather than a new empirical study: Delavaux et al. (2024) had proposed mainland mutualist proportion as an explanation for why oceanic islands show a weaker latitudinal diversity gradient than mainlands. Re-running their own data, this comment finds the evidence doesn't hold up — a reminder that a plausible mechanistic story needs the statistics to actually support it, not just be consistent with it.