Publications by authors named "Samuel E D Thompson"
Article Synopsis
- Estimates of deep-time biodiversity often use statistical methods to address sampling biases in the fossil record, but these methods have limitations based on data availability.
- A new spatially explicit mechanistic model, inspired by neutral theory, was employed to analyze early tetrapod diversity changes during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods, key times for vertebrate evolution.
- The findings indicate that observed increases in early tetrapod diversity are more closely related to changes in sampling intensity rather than true local endemism, underscoring the necessity to account for sampling biases in fossil studies and the value of mechanistic approaches in palaeobiology.
Habitat loss leads to species extinctions, both immediately and over the long term as 'extinction debt' is repaid. The same quantity of habitat can be lost in different spatial patterns with varying habitat fragmentation. How this translates to species loss remains an open problem requiring an understanding of the interplay between community dynamics and habitat structure across temporal and spatial scales.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBoth niche and stochastic dispersal processes structure the extraordinary diversity of tropical plants, but determining their relative contributions has proven challenging. We address this question using airborne imaging spectroscopy to estimate canopy β-diversity for an extensive region of a Bornean rainforest and challenge these data with models incorporating niches and dispersal. We show that remotely sensed and field-derived estimates of pairwise dissimilarity in community composition are closely matched, proving the applicability of imaging spectroscopy to provide β-diversity data for entire landscapes of over 1000 ha containing contrasting forest types.
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