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Welcome to the DAISIErobustness wiki. Here you will find a description of the DAISIErobustness project, technical details related to its implementation as an R package and instructions on how to use the package and replicate studies that use it (currently under journal review).

DAISIErobustness

DAISIErobustness is an R package for testing of the robustness of the island biogeography model "DAISIE" (Dynamical Assembly of Island biota by Speciation, Immigration and Extinction) to more complex and potentially more realistic evolutionary models. Different measures of error of number of species, endemics, non-endemics and evolutionary trajectories are used to determine whether the alternative models can influence the inference capabilities of the current DAISIE model.

What is DAISIE?

DAISIE is an evolutionary island biogeography model that allows for the estimation of diversification rates and other relevant diversification parameters on islands using phylogenetic data. These are:

• Cladogenesis rate
• Anagenesis rate
• (Clade-specific or island-wide) carrying capacity
• Migration rate
• Extinction rate

The estimation of such parameters is achieved using Maximum-Likelihood optimization, following the DAISIE likelihood functions described in published literature¹. The performance of DAISIE inference given the amount and quality of data has been studied as well. It was shown to perform well, particularly when phylogenetic data is available².

Furthermore, DAISIE includes simulation code allowing for the simulation of data following the above mentioned parameters.

References

¹Valente, Luis M., Albert B. Phillimore, and Rampal S. Etienne. "Equilibrium and non‐equilibrium dynamics simultaneously operate in the Galápagos islands." Ecology letters 18.8 (2015): 844-852.

²Valente, Luis, Albert B. Phillimore, and Rampal S. Etienne. "Using molecular phylogenies in island biogeography: it’s about time." Ecography 182 (2018): 820.