Abstract
"Throw up a handful of feathers, and all must fall to the ground according to definite laws; but how simple is this problem compared to the action and reaction of the innumerable plants and animals which have determined, in the course of centuries, the proportional numbers and kinds of trees now growing on the old Indian ruins!" Charles Darwin, 1859 This exclamation by Darwin in his famous book on the origin of species still rings very true today: while physicists have discovered laws governing the tiniest particles and the largest stellar objects, biologists are still struggling to understand how species are formed (speciation) and how they coexist. Some have tried to explain the emergence of new species, but stopped short of studying what this means for the biodiversity patterns that we observe today, such as how the abundances of species differ between species, how the numbers of species vary over spatial distances, and how the relatedness of species varies with their abundance and spatial location. Others have studied how such patterns are maintained, but they did not study the processes that formed the basic components of these patterns. I propose to complete the full circle: With theoretical models, I will study how speciation gives rise to biodiversity patterns and how these patterns in turn influence speciation. In this synthetic evolutionary-ecological framework I will then be able to identify the relative contributions to biodiversity in an ecological community of (1) species? functions (traits) and interactions, of (2) the common evolutionary history (phylogeny) of species, and of (3) birth, death and dispersal/migration of individuals. This framework will be shaped as a sampling theory, which is necessary to make a quantitative link to ecological data.
Netherlands