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diversity. They have rather simply acknowledged that dispersal has played a role in the radiation of lineages is not to be
happens in particular scenarios and should be part of a denied, as for instance among the Hawaiian islands
combined vicariant-dispersal explanation of the distributions of Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe, the so-called
of the taxa in question. ‘Maui-nui’ island group. Because of a combination of fluctua-
Recently, a number of articles, both in this journal and tions in sea level and the dynamic processes of building,
others (Givnish & Renner, 2004; Renner, 2004; Cook & Crisp, subsidence and erosion of these sequentially produced islands,
2005; Halas et al., 2005; McGlone, 2005; de Queiroz, 2005), the islands of Maui-nui have at various times been emergent
have argued that dispersal must be seriously considered as an volcanic peaks separated by sea-water channels, then combined
important process in evolution and speciation, and that its role into larger land masses, and finally broken again into a number
has been underestimated in historical biogeography. We agree of smaller islands (Price & Elliott-Fisk, 2004). Within certain
wholeheartedly. However, much of this commentary has been lineages, intra-island speciation may also have been driven by
focused on dispersal in a continental or continental island various selective forces, such as sexual selection (Kaneshiro &
context, and while trans-oceanic dispersal has been considered, Boake, 1987) and reproductive isolation brought about by
this has been primarily in the context of explanations for the fragmentation as deep valleys formed through erosion of
occurrence of related taxa on widely separated continents, previously continuous habitat (Holland & Hadfield, 2002).
notably in the Southern Hemisphere (Givnish & Renner, 2004; However, in the most fundamental sense, oceanic dispersal is
Sanmartı́n & Ronquist, 2004; Cook & Crisp, 2005). In this the key to evolutionary radiation on these islands.
editorial we want to take these arguments further and to
emphasize strongly that in oceanic island situations in
GENERAL PATTERNS OF DISPERSAL
particular not only is dispersal important but it is the critical
initiating step in the generation of endemic biodiversity, Strict vicariance biogeography has essentially considered
without which vicariant evolution within these islands could dispersal as noise in the system, stochastic in nature, and
not happen, and furthermore that general patterns of direc- therefore exhibiting no general patterns and permitting no
tional dispersal can be detected. The emphasis over the last few refutable hypotheses, hence being ultimately uninteresting
decades on almost exclusively vicariant scenarios as providing (Humphries & Parenti, 1999). But there are indeed general
the only rigorously testable hypotheses of historical biogeog- dispersal patterns in oceanic systems, related to ocean currents,
raphy, with dispersal considered as just random noise, has predominant wind patterns (trade winds, hurricane tracks),
stifled important research on the role of dispersal in oceanic the geographical arrangement of islands (facilitating use as
biogeography. stepping stones) and bird migration routes (Peake, 1981;
Ballard & Sytsma, 2000; Hoskin, 2000; Givnish & Renner,
2004; Renner, 2004). Asymmetry of dispersal – the predom-
VICARIANCE AND DISPERSAL IN OCEANIC
inance of dispersal in one direction rather than another – has
ISLAND SYSTEMS
recently received particular attention as a potentially con-
The majority of the myriad islands of the Pacific have been founding factor for biogeographical reconstructions that
formed in situ and not by the fragmentation of large land ignore it (Cook & Crisp, 2005; McGlone, 2005). In addition,
masses. As the Pacific tectonic plate moves steadily north- there are well-documented patterns in which taxa with
westwards, island arcs, such as the Marianas and some of the inherently worse dispersal abilities are unable to colonize
Fijian islands, are created at its western edge as it meets the more geographically isolated islands (Peake, 1981; Whittaker,
tectonic plates to the west (Polhemus, 1996). However, most of 1998), and disharmonic biotic distributions arise as a result.
the islands of the central Pacific have been formed as the plate Furthermore, to reinforce the notion that dispersal within
moves over stationary hot spots in the underlying mantle, hot-spot archipelagos is far from a stochastic process, we can
which from time to time send magma up through the plate, point to many examples of studies in numerous plant and
forming long chains of volcanoes, each volcano sequentially animal groups that have detected common patterns of
younger than the one that preceded it, and which will have dispersal that generally conform to the so-called ‘progression
moved north-westwards away from the hot spot (Price & rule’ (Fig. 1) that dispersal and colonization, frequently
Clague, 2002). This is how the Hawaiian Islands, the islands of accompanied by lineage bifurcation, proceeds from older to
French Polynesia (Tahiti, etc.), the Samoan Islands, and many younger islands (Wagner & Funk, 1995; Roderick & Gillespie,
others have been formed. Only few Pacific islands are of 1998; Juan et al., 2000; Hormiga et al., 2003; Nepokroeff et al.,
continental origin, for example New Caledonia and New 2003; Holland & Hadfield, 2004). As an island first appears
Zealand. In the Atlantic, similar geological forces have created above the surface of the ocean it is available for colonization,
volcanic island chains such as the Canary Islands and the and its most likely colonizers come from the nearest land mass,
Madeiran archipelago. which is the next youngest island in the chain. As the plate
Thus, the biogeography and endemic biodiversity of these continues to move, new islands form and the process is
oceanic islands, both arc and hot-spot islands, which have repeated. Sometimes colonizing species pass over one or more
never had a connection to a continental land mass, are islands in colonizing the newest island, sometimes there are
fundamentally a product of oceanic dispersal. That vicariance back-colonizations from younger to older islands; although
pathways – snails can fly (Kirchner et al., 1997), perhaps Arctic origins, herbaceous ancestry and bird dispersal. Evo-
especially if attached to a leaf. Such dispersal mechanisms have lution, 54, 1521–1532.
often been suggested for snails (e.g. Vagvolgyi, 1975; Peake, Boag, D.A. (1986) Dispersal in pond snails: potential role of
1981; Hausdorf, 2000). waterfowl. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 64, 904–909.
An estimated 29 successful colonizations are necessary to Briggs, J.C. (1999) Coincident biogeographic patterns: Indo-
explain the diversity of Hawaiian land snails (Ziegler, 2002), west Pacific ocean. Evolution, 53, 326–335.
which translates into roughly one every million years, if the Brooks, D.R. & McLennan, D.A. (1991) Phylogeny, ecology, and
oldest colonization was to the island of Kure, or one every behavior. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
175,000 years if the oldest colonization was to Kauai (Price & Brooks, D.R. & McLennan, D.A. (2001) A comparison of a
Clague, 2002). On average, hurricanes with maximum wind discovery-based and an event-based method of historical
speeds of 64 knots (c. 119 km h)1) (minimum hurricane biogeography. Journal of Biogeography, 28, 757–767.
intensity) and maximum wind speeds of 125 knots Chu, P.S. & Wang, J. (1998) Modelling return periods of
(c. 232 km h)1) come within 250 nautical miles (463 km) of tropical cyclone intensities in the vicinity of Hawaii. Journal
the Hawaiian Islands every 7 and 137 years, respectively, with of Applied Meteorology, 37, 951–960.
hurricanes of intermediate wind speed coming at intermediate Cook, L.G. & Crisp, M.D. (2005) Directional asymmetry of
frequencies (Chu & Wang, 1998). That snails, with some long-distance dispersal and colonization could mislead
exceptions that have evolved in situ (Cowie, 1996a), tend to be reconstructions of biogeography. Journal of Biogeography,
smaller the more isolated the island offers support to the idea 32, 741–754.
that birds and the wind are the more important mechanisms Cowie, R.H. (1996a) Variation in species diversity and shell
(Peake, 1981; Cowie, 1996b). shape in Hawaiian land snails: in situ speciation and eco-
logical relationships. Evolution, 49(6)[1995], 1191–1202.
Cowie, R.H. (1996b) Pacific island land snails: relationships,
CONCLUSION
origins, and determinants of diversity. The origin and evo-
Thus, the immense diversity of land snails and other organisms lution of Pacific island biotas, New Guinea to eastern Poly-
on oceanic islands (e.g. Ziegler, 2002) is fundamentally nesia: patterns and processes (ed. by A. Keast and S.E. Miller),
dependent on dispersal, and that dispersal probably exhibits pp. 347–372. SPB Academic Publishing, Amsterdam.
patterns both on a small intra-archipelago scale and on a larger Craig, D.A., Currie, D.C. & Joy, D.A. (2001) Geographical
ocean-wide scale. These patterns remain poorly understood history of the central-western Pacific black fly subgenus
but deserve considerable research attention. Inseliellum (Diptera: Simuliidae: Simulium) based on a
We hope, therefore, that the trend identified by de Queiroz reconstructed phylogeny of the species, hot-spot archipela-
(2005) – the resurrection of oceanic dispersal as important in goes and hydrological considerations. Journal of Biogeo-
historical biogeography – is real and that the straightjacket of graphy, 28, 1101–1127.
strict vicariance biogeography is being loosened to include Emerson, B.C. (2002) Evolution on oceanic islands: molecular
once again the plurality of mechanisms and processes that phylogenetic approaches to understanding pattern and
make evolutionary biology the exasperating but ever fascin- process. Molecular Ecology, 11, 951–966.
ating discipline that it is. At least in the Pacific, there are Gillespie, R.G., Croom, H.B. & Palumbi, S.R. (1994) Multiple
excellent opportunities with numerous plant and animal origins of a spider radiation in Hawaii. Proceedings of the
groups not only to address the origins and diversification of National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,
this important component of the earth’s biodiversity but also 91, 2290–2294.
to contribute profoundly to the advancement of the discipline Givnish, T.J & Renner, S.S. (2004) Tropical intercontinental
of biogeography. disjunctions: Gondwana breakup, immigration from the
boreotropics, and transoceanic dispersal. International
Journal of Plant Science, 165 (Suppl.), S1–S6.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Halas, D., Zamparo, D. & Brooks, D.R. 2005. A protocol for
Our research on Pacific island biogeography is currently studying biotic diversification by taxon pulses. Journal of
supported by the US National Science Foundation, grant DEB- Biogeography, 32, 249–260.
0316308. We thank Richard Field for helpful comments on a Hausdorf, B. (2000) Biogeography of the Limacoidea sensu lato
draft of this article. (Gastropoda: Stylommatophora): vicariance events and
long-distance dispersal. Journal of Biogeography, 27, 379–390.
Holland, B.S. & Hadfield, M.G. (2002) Islands within an
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BIOSKETCHES
Robert H. Cowie is an Associate Researcher in the Center for Conservation Research and Training at the University of Hawaii. His
research addresses issues related to the origins and determinants of biodiversity and its conservation, as well as the origins and
impacts of introduced species. His primary focus is on non-marine snails in the islands of the Pacific and freshwater snails in South
and Central America.
Brenden S. Holland is a Junior Researcher in the Center for Conservation Research and Training at the University of Hawaii. His
research uses molecular techniques to address phylogenetic and phylogeographical questions in Pacific island biodiversity, focusing
primarily on molluscs, both marine and non-marine.