Extending island biogeography theory to biotic islands: Microbial communities in epiphytic bird's nest fern Asplenium nidus

Abstract

1. Biotic insular systems differ from conventional islands because patch attributes change dynamically as patch-forming organisms develop. It therefore remains unclear whether the assembly mechanisms predicted by island biogeography theory (IBT) operate in such systems. Here, using epiphytic birds nest ferns (BNFs, Asplenium nidus) as a model biotic island system, we tested whether fungal and bacterial community diversity conform to species-area relationships predicted by IBT. With a stratified sampling scheme, we further evaluated the underlying mechanisms (passive sampling, disproportionate effects, and environmental heterogeneity) of species-area relationships, and assessed isolation effects using distance-decay patterns in community similarity. 2. We treated each BNF individual as a microbial island and categorized 24 BNFs into three size classes. Microbial and humus samples from multiple litter layers within each BNF individual were collected; microbial communities were characterized using next-generation sequencing, and humus chemical properties (pH and C:N ratio) were measured to characterize microhabitat conditions. To investigate mechanisms underlying species-area relationships, we applied a multi-scale rarefaction framework to partition diversity components. Spatial distances among BNFs were quantified to evaluate isolation effects. 3. Consistent with IBT predictions, both fungal and bacterial communities exhibited positive species-area relationships, indicating that larger BNFs harbored greater microbial richness. Diversity partitioning suggested that fungal richness increased through both disproportionate effects and environmental heterogeneity, whereas bacterial richness was primarily driven by environmental heterogeneity. Within larger ferns, greater heterogeneity in litter pH was associated with increased species turnover across litter layers, suggesting that decomposition-driven pH gradients create diverse microhabitats that promote microbial diversity. In addition, both microbial communities exhibited distance-decay patterns, indicating that isolation contributes to community assembly through dispersal limitation. 4. Synthesis. Our results demonstrate that BNFs function as a biotic insular system, in which both patch size and spatial isolation structure microbial diversity, consistent with predictions from IBT. Furthermore, we show that environmental heterogeneity generated by the growth of the habitatforming BNF mechanistically links island area to microbial diversity. Our study integrates both local habitat heterogeneity and regional spatial structure, highlighting the potential to extend IBT and metacommunity theory to organism-formed habitats.