Each participant in the symposium on patterns of speciation and biogeography of the Hawaiian biota will apply phylogenetic methods to their data, generating hypotheses of relationships and biogeography. Using a consistent methodology will allow patterns of radiation for the different groups to be directly contrasted. Detected patterns can be used to explore adaptive radiation and ecology of that group. A broad spectrum of organisms (insects, spiders, birds, dicot flowering plants) will be used to test ideas of island speciation and biogeography. These will be the first detailed biogeographical analyses for Hawaiian organisms (other than the well known Hawaiian Drosophila). Finally, this effort represents the first attempt to test the idea that independent lineages of Hawaiian organisms exhibit similar patters of colonization and differentiation directly related to the unique geological of this archipelago.
