@phdthesis{Leidinger2020,
  author    = {Leidinger, Ludwig Klaus Theodor},
  title     = {How genomic and ecological traits shape island biodiversity - insights from individual-based models},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-20730},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-207300},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Life on oceanic islands provides a playground and comparably easy\-/studied basis for the understanding of biodiversity in general. Island biota feature many fascinating patterns: endemic species, species radiations and species with peculiar trait syndromes. However, classic and current island biogeography theory does not yet consider all the factors necessary to explain many of these patterns. In response to this, there is currently a shift in island biogeography research to systematically consider species traits and thus gain a more functional perspective. Despite this recent development, a set of species characteristics remains largely ignored in island biogeography, namely genomic traits. Evidence suggests that genomic factors could explain many of the speciation and adaptation patterns found in nature and thus may be highly informative to explain the fascinating and iconic phenomena known for oceanic islands, including species radiations and susceptibility to biotic invasions. Unfortunately, the current lack of comprehensive meaningful data makes studying these factors challenging. Even with paleontological data and space-for-time rationales, data is bound to be incomplete due to the very environmental processes taking place on oceanic islands, such as land slides and volcanism, and lacks causal information due to the focus on correlative approaches. As promising alternative, integrative mechanistic models can explicitly consider essential underlying eco\-/evolutionary mechanisms. In fact, these models have shown to be applicable to a variety of different systems and study questions. In this thesis, I therefore examined present mechanistic island models to identify how they might be used to address some of the current open questions in island biodiversity research. Since none of the models simultaneously considered speciation and adaptation at a genomic level, I developed a new genome- and niche-explicit, individual-based model. I used this model to address three different phenomena of island biodiversity: environmental variation, insular species radiations and species invasions. Using only a single model I could show that small-bodied species with flexible genomes are successful under environmental variation, that a complex combination of dispersal abilities, reproductive strategies and genomic traits affect the occurrence of species radiations and that invasions are primarily driven by the intensity of introductions and the trait characteristics of invasive species. This highlights how the consideration of functional traits can promote the understanding of some of the understudied phenomena in island biodiversity. The results presented in this thesis exemplify the generality of integrative models which are built on first principles. Thus, by applying such models to various complex study questions, they are able to unveil multiple biodiversity dynamics and patterns. The combination of several models such as the one I developed to an eco\-/evolutionary model ensemble could further help to identify fundamental eco\-/evolutionary principles. I conclude the thesis with an outlook on how to use and extend my developed model to investigate geomorphological dynamics in archipelagos and to allow dynamic genomes, which would further increase the model's generality.},
  subject      = {Inselbiogeografie},
  language  = {en}
}