Effects of physical disturbance on an estuarine intertidal community: field and mesocosm results compared

Cowie, Phillip R.; Widdicombe, Stephen; Austen, Melanie C.

doi:10.1007/s002270050708

Cited by 40 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Accordingly, experiments in systems where these prerequisites are not fulfilled seldom find support for the IDH. For instance Cowie et al (2000) and Huxham et al (2000) did not observe maximum diversity at intermediate levels of disturbance, because settling propagules and a small regional species pool were lacking. Studies testing the DEM have also explained lack of support for the model with the failure of fulfilment of these requirements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Findings consistent with the predictions of the IDH have been made in manipulative studies in both terrestrial (e.g., Molino andSabatier 2001, Anderson et al 2005) and marine (e.g., Osman 1977, Sousa 1979, Valdivia et al 2005, Patricio et al 2006 ecosystems. However, contradictory observations have also been made (Lake et al 1989, Collins et al 1995, Gutt and Piepenburg 2003, and due to difficulties of incorporating all components of natural environments, laboratory studies are often relatively less supportive (Cowie et al 2000). In summary, the IDH has been an influential concept in research and also as a tool in management of nature reserves (Wootton 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Maximum Species Richness at Intermediate Frequencies of Disturbance: Consistency Among Levels of Productivity

Svensson¹,

Lindegarth²,

Siccha

et al. 2007

Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Development of a mechanistic understanding and predictions of patterns of biodiversity is a central theme in ecology. One of the most influential theories, the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH), predicts maximum diversity at intermediate levels of disturbance frequency. The dynamic equilibrium model (DEM), an extension of the IDH, predicts that the level of productivity determines at what frequency of disturbance maximum diversity occurs. To test, and contrast, the predictions of these two models, a field experiment on marine hard-substratum assemblages was conducted with seven levels of disturbance frequency and three levels of nutrient availability. Consistent with the IDH, maximum diversity, measured as species richness, was observed at an intermediate frequency of disturbance. Despite documented effects on productivity, the relationship between disturbance and diversity was not altered by the nutrient treatments. Thus, in this system the DEM did not improve the understanding of patterns of diversity compared to the IDH. Furthermore, it is suggested that careful consideration of measurements and practical definitions of productivity in natural assemblages is necessary for a rigorous test of the DEM.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maximum Species Richness at Intermediate Frequencies of Disturbance: Consistency Among Levels of Productivity

Svensson¹,

Lindegarth²,

Siccha

et al. 2007

Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The model thus predicts that the abundance distributions of communities influenced by a single strong and dominating ecological factor will be disequitable (similar to the geometric series), whereas those governed by multiple unrelated factors will have more equitable distributions (like the lognormal or the broken stick). This prediction is clearly amenable to experimental tests (31). Ruth Patrick's nutrient enrichment studies involving diatoms (2) and the Rothamstead Parkgrass experiments are among the best-documented examples of a decrease in evenness in species abundance distribution after a perturbation (32,33).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicted correspondence between species abundances and dendrograms of niche similarities

Sugihara

Bersier

Southwood

et al. 2003

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

114

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We examine a hypothesized relationship between two descriptions of community structure: the niche-overlap dendrogram that describes the ecological similarities of species and the pattern of relative abundances. Specifically, we examine the way in which this relationship follows from the niche hierarchy model, whose fundamental assumption is a direct connection between abundances and underlying hierarchical community organization. We test three important, although correlated, predictions of the niche hierarchy model and show that they are upheld in a set of 11 communities (encompassing fishes, amphibians, lizards, and birds) where both abundances and dendrograms were reported. First, species that are highly nested in the dendrogram are on average less abundant than species from branches less subdivided. Second, and more significantly, more equitable community abundances are associated with more evenly branched dendrogram structures, whereas less equitable abundances are associated with less even dendrograms. This relationship shows that abundance patterns can give insight into less visible aspects of community organization. Third, one can recover the distribution of proportional abundances seen in assemblages containing two species by treating each branch point in the dendrogram as a two-species case. This reconstruction cannot be achieved if abundances and the dendrogram are unrelated and suggests a method for hierarchically decomposing systems. To our knowledge, this is the first test of a species abundance model based on nontrivial predictions as to the origins and causes of abundance patterns, and not simply on the goodness-of-fit of distributions.A fundamental idea behind the study of patterns of species abundance is the presumed connection between species abundances and the functional ways in which communities are organized. Functional organization refers to how species are related to one another, as competitors or members of a web of interactions. The hypothesis that readily available data on relative abundances give insight into these less visible aspects of functional organization is not new (1, 2). For example, it is commonly observed that disturbed biotas are dominated by very few species and have a very different form of organization than their undisturbed and more diverse counterparts (3-5). Despite the importance of this fundamental connection for dialogues about conservation and biodiversity (6), and the century of effort that has gone into gathering data on species abundances, our understanding of these deeper aspects of community structure, and of how they connect to species abundances, remains poor.Recent developments in models of species abundance have focused on the incorporation of species' dynamics (7) or on the use of spatially explicit individual-based models that include basic physiological processes (8). All of these models rely exclusively on the goodness-of-fit between theoretical and observed distributions for verification. A very interesting recent example is the approach by Hubbell ...

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, the hypothesis remains controversial [10,24] and is not well supported for terrestrial animals [25] or benthic marine organisms on soft bottoms [26][27][28]. Even in tropical forests, the intermediate disturbance hypothesis explains only a small proportion of the variance in plant species richness [21].…”

Section: Species Richness and Disturbancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…They have done so using observational studies, experimental approaches, or a combination of the two [26]. Additionally, species richness is either the number of species or the species density, and species diversity is one of several indices, including the Shannon index and Hurlbert's probability of interspecific encounter.…”

Section: Species Richness-curves Contingent Upon Organism and Environmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Humpbacked Species Richness-Curve: A Contingent Rule for Community Ecology

Graham

Duda

2011

International Journal of Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Functional relationships involving species richness may be unimodal, monotonically increasing, monotonically decreasing, bimodal, multimodal, U-shaped, or with no discernable pattern. The unimodal relationships are the most interesting because they suggest dynamic, nonequilibrium community processes. For that reason, they are also contentious. In this paper, we provide a wide-ranging review of the literature on unimodal (humpbacked) species richness-relationships. Though not as widespread as previously thought, unimodal patterns of species richness are often associated with disturbance, predation and herbivory, productivity, spatial heterogeneity, environmental gradients, time, and latitude. These unimodal patterns are contingent on organism and environment; we examine unimodal species richness-curves involving plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, plankton, and microbes in marine, lacustrine, and terrestrial habitats. A goal of future research is to understand the contingent patterns and the complex, interacting processes that generate them.

show abstract

Effects of physical disturbance on an estuarine intertidal community: field and mesocosm results compared

Cited by 40 publications

References 35 publications

Maximum Species Richness at Intermediate Frequencies of Disturbance: Consistency Among Levels of Productivity

Maximum Species Richness at Intermediate Frequencies of Disturbance: Consistency Among Levels of Productivity

Predicted correspondence between species abundances and dendrograms of niche similarities

The Humpbacked Species Richness-Curve: A Contingent Rule for Community Ecology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About