The number of available sites for establishment is a key determinant of species richness on habitat islands. While most theoretical studies assume habitat size or capacity to be constant, many natural habitats are characterized by dynamic growth in capacity over ecological timescales. A case in point is provided by trees that serve as habitat for vascular and non-vascular epiphytes. Here, we develop a modeling framework, based on neutral theory, to address the effects of habitat growth on community development, i.e., species richness and abundance. The model is parameterized to the situation of vascular epiphyte communities in tropical lowland forests and includes stochastic reproduction, death, and immigration events from a larger metacommunity. Using numerical simulations, we explore the proportion of growing sites occupied by individuals, the number of empty unoccupied sites, as well as changes in species abundances, species richness, colonization and extinction rates, and the dependence on the abundance in the metacommunity throughout the growth of the habitat. Our analysis suggests two characteristic phases of community development in a growing habitat: (i) an initial phase, characterized by a rapid buildup of empty sites, a slow increase in species abundance, and a fast increase in species richness, and (ii) a second phase, in which the number of empty sites reaches an equilibrium, species richness is accumulating very slowly, while the number of individuals increases unabatedly with habitat capacity.

中文翻译：

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在生长的栖息地“岛屿”上模拟社区集会：以树木及其维管附生植物群落为例

可供建立的地点数量是栖息岛上物种丰富度的关键决定因素。虽然大多数理论研究都假设栖息地的大小或容量是恒定的，但许多自然栖息地的特征是在生态时间范围内容量的动态增长。树木提供了一个很好的例子，它们是有血管和无血管附生植物的栖息地。在这里，我们基于中立理论开发了一个建模框架，以解决栖息地增长对社区发展的影响，即物种丰富度和丰度。该模型针对热带低地森林中维管附生植物群落的情况进行了参数化，包括随机繁殖，死亡和较大型群落的移民事件。通过数值模拟，我们探索了个人所占据的生长地所占的比例，空的无人居住的地点的数量，物种丰富度，物种丰富度，定居和灭绝率的变化，以及整个生境生长过程中对元群落丰富度的依赖性。我们的分析表明，在不断增长的栖息地中社区发展的两个特征阶段：（i）一个初始阶段，其特征是空地迅速聚集，物种丰富度缓慢增加以及物种丰富度快速增加；以及（ii）第二阶段，空地数量达到平衡，物种丰富度积累非常缓慢，而个体数量随生境容量的增加而增加。以及整个生境生长过程中对元社区丰富度的依赖。我们的分析表明，在不断增长的栖息地中社区发展的两个特征阶段：（i）一个初始阶段，其特征是空地迅速聚集，物种丰富度缓慢增加以及物种丰富度快速增加；以及（ii）第二阶段，空地数量达到平衡，物种丰富度积累非常缓慢，而个体数量随生境容量的增加而增加。以及整个生境生长过程中对元社区丰富度的依赖。我们的分析表明，在不断增长的栖息地中社区发展的两个特征阶段：（i）一个初始阶段，其特征是空地迅速聚集，物种丰富度缓慢增加以及物种丰富度快速增加；以及（ii）第二阶段，空地数量达到平衡，物种丰富度积累非常缓慢，而个体数量随生境容量的增加而增加。