The island rule-like patterns of plant size variation in a young land-bridge archipelago: Roles of environmental circumstance and biotic competition

The island rule, a general pattern of dwarfism in large species to gigantism in small species on islands relative to mainland, is typically seen as a macroevolutionary phenomenon. However, whether the ecological processes associated with abiotic and biotic factors generate a pattern of plant size variation similar to the island rule remains unknown. We measured plant height for 29,623 individuals of 50 common woody plant species across 43 islands in the Zhoushan Archipelago (8500 years old and yet to undergo major evolutionary adaptation) and the adjacent mainlands in China. We found pronounced variations in plant height, similar to those of the island rule. Interestingly, islands with low resource availability, such as low soil organic matter content and low precipitation, had a high degree of dwarfism; islands experiencing high environmental stress, such as high soil pH, had a high degree of dwarfism; and islands experiencing less plant–plant competition had a high degree of gigantism. The magnitude of plant dwarfism was higher on small and remote islands than on larger and nearer islands. These results highlight the importance of ecological processes associated with abiotic and biotic conditions in shaping the island rule-like patterns of plant size variation. Since our studied archipelago is too young to undergo major evolution, ecological processes likely played a prominent role in generating the observed pattern, challenging the notion that the evolutionary process is the dominant factor underlying the island rule. Future studies on the island rule need to perform experiments to disentangle evolutionary from ecological mechanisms.