Please cite this article in press as: Wang, Y., et al. Small-island effect in snake communities on islands of an inundated lake: The need to include zeroes. Basic and Applied Ecology (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2014.10.006 ARTICLE IN PRESS BAAE-50834; No. of Pages 9 Basic and Applied Ecology xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Small-island effect in snake communities on islands of an inundated lake: The need to include zeroes Yanping Wang a , Qiang Wu a , Xi Wang a , Chao Liu a , Lingbing Wu a , Chuanwu Chen a , Dapeng Ge a , Xiao Song a , Cangsong Chen a,b , Aichun Xu a,c , Ping Ding a,∗ a The Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China b Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, Hangzhou 310012, China c College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China Received 30 April 2014; received in revised form 16 October 2014; accepted 17 October 2014 Abstract The small-island effect (SIE), i.e. the pattern that species richness on islands below a certain threshold area varies independently of area, has become a widely accepted part of the theoretical framework of island biogeography and biodiversity research. However, because very few previously published datasets include islands without species, the role of S = 0 in generating the SIE is rarely examined. Here, we tested the role of S = 0 in generating the SIE for the first time by using snake data collected on 48 islands in the Thousand Island Lake, China. To determine the role of S = 0 in generating the SIE, we used regression analysis and path analysis to conduct separate analyses for all the islands (including islands with no snake records) and for the 29 islands inhabited by snakes. When including islands with no snakes, model selection based on AIC c identified the left-horizontal SIE model as the most parsimonious model. When excluding islands with no snakes, model selection based on AIC c identified the simple logarithm model without an SIE as the best model. Path analysis detected an SIE for the full dataset, but none for the dataset excluding islands with no snakes. Our results suggest that S = 0 plays an important role in generating the SIE and excluding islands with no snakes can lead to erroneously not detecting an SIE when in fact an SIE exists. We conclude that, for the robust detection of the SIE, islands with no species should not be excluded in future studies. Zusammenfassung Der ‘small-island-effect’ (SIE), d.h., der Befund, dass der Artenreichtum auf Inseln mit einer Fläche unterhalb eines bes- timmten Schwellenwerts unabhängig von der Inselfläche variiert, ist zu einem weithin akzeptierten Teil des theoretischen Gebäudes der Insel-Biogeographie und der Biodiversitätsforschung geworden. Da indessen nur sehr wenige publizierte Daten- sätze Inseln ohne Arten einschließen, ist die Funktion von S = 0 beim Zustandekommen des SIE selten untersucht worden. Hier testeten wir erstmalig diese Funktion mit einem Datensatz über die Schlangen auf 48 Inseln im Qiandao-Stausee (China). Wir benutzten Regressionsanalysen und Pfadanalysen und nahmen getrennte Analysen für alle Inseln (d.h. ein- schließlich der Inseln mit S = 0) und nur die 29 von Schlangen bewohnten Inseln vor. Wenn die Inseln ohne Schlangen ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 571 88206468; fax: +86 571 88206468. E-mail address: dingping@zju.edu.cn (P. Ding). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2014.10.006 1439-1791/© 2014 Gesellschaft für Ökologie. Published by Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.