Patterns of species diversity provide fundamental insights into the underlying mechanisms and processes that regulate biodiversity. The species–time relationship (STR) has the potential to be one such pattern; in a comparable manner to its more extensively studied spatial analogue, the species–area relationship (SAR), which has been pivotal in the development of ecological models and theories. We sought to determine the mechanisms and processes that underpin STR patterns of temporal turnover by sampling bacterial communities within ten water-filled tree-holes on the same European beech tree through the course of a year. We took this natural model system to represent an archipelago of islands of varying sizes and with shared common immigration sources. We observed an inverse relationship between STR-derived turnover rates and island size. Further, turnover was related to island size and not island isolation within the study system as indicated by a low frequency of dispersal limitation and high homogenizing dispersal. Compared to SARs, STRs are understudied, as such, the findings from the current study should provide a renewed interest in STR-based patterns and processes.

物种多样性的模式提供了对调节生物多样性的潜在机制和过程的基本见解。物种-时间关系 (STR) 有可能成为这样一种模式；以与其更广泛研究的空间类比——物种-面积关系 (SAR) 类似的方式，后者在生态模型和理论的发展中发挥了关键作用。我们试图通过在一年的过程中对同一欧洲山毛榉树上十个充满水的树洞内的细菌群落进行采样，来确定支撑时间周转模式的机制和过程。我们用这个自然模型系统来表示一个由大小不一且具有共同移民来源的岛屿组成的群岛。我们观察到 STR 衍生的周转率与岛屿大小之间存在反比关系。进一步，营业额与岛屿大小有关，而不是研究系统内的岛屿隔离，如分散限制的低频率和高度均质化分散所表明的那样。与 SAR 相比，STR 的研究不足，因此，当前研究的结果应该会重新引起人们对基于 STR 的模式和过程的兴趣。