Conclusion
Within the exciting, natural fragmentation experiment provided by
Hawaiian kīpuka, we have used a powerful metabarcoding approach to study
the role this fragmentation can play in simultaneously restructuring
biological communities and driving interspecific differentiation. We
found that Hawaiian kīpuka were characterized by simpler communities
with higher proportions of non-native taxa than Hawaiian continuous
forest. Kīpuka communities were more distinct from one another than
communities sampled across similar distances in continuous forest, and
similarly we found evidence for higher rates of genetic differentiation
between kīpuka than across similar distances sampled in continuous
forest. Conceivably, our results suggest that forest specialist species
in these ‘islands’ might undergo more granular local adaptation in
kīpuka than they would otherwise do in continuous forest habitat.