Figure 1. Effects of species differences in migration probability from the metacommunity to the local community on the local community structure.

Parameter values: θ = 50, and (a) m = 0.01, σ = 0, 0.1, 1 and 4, respectively; (b) m = 0. 1, σ = 0, 0.1, 1 and 4, respectively; (c) m = 0.3, σ = 0, 0.1, 1 and 4, respectively. Large differences in species per capita immigration ability result in decreased species richness and deviation of species abundance distributions in local communities from those predicted by the neutral theory. The black bars are for the neutral model. The results are the average over 100 replicate simulations, and the variances are similar for different values of σ, which are not shown in the figure for clarity.