PACT in practice: comparative historical biogeographic patterns and species-area relationships of the Greater Antillean and Hawaiian Island terrestrial biotas

Abstract

Aim To compare the evolutionary and ecological patterns of two extensively studied island biotas with differing geological histories (the Hawaiian Islands and the GreaterAntilles).We evaluated the results from PACT (phylogenetic analysis for comparing trees), an innovative approach that has been proposed to reveal general patterns of biotic expansion (between regions) and in situ (within a region) diversification, as well as species‐area relationships (SAR) and the taxon pulse dynamic. Location The Hawaiian Islands and Greater Antilles. Methods We used the PACT algorithm to construct general area cladograms and identified biotic expansion and in situ nodes. We analysed the power-law SAR and relative contribution of biotic expansion and in situ diversification events using power-law and linear regression analyses.