Community Structure And Distributions Of Two Terrestrial Salamanders
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Author | : Saad Arif |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 90 |
Release | : 2005 |
Genre | : |
ISBN | : |
A goal of evolutionary ecology is to understand the forces that generate ecological communities and maintain species boundaries. Although the effects of particular biotic and abiotic forces have been well studied, much less is known about how these forces interact to influence the evolution of community structure. Here, I report an example of compensatory abiotic and biotic factors limiting the distribution of two terrestrial salamanders and effectively maintaining community structure. The distribution of the wide-ranging Plethodon cinereus completely surrounds the range of P. hubrichti, thus it was believed that P. hubrichti was geographically restricted as a result of interspecific competition from P. cinereus. Using a combination of morphological analysis, resource use (food) data, climatic data, and ecological-niche modeling, I found no evidence to support the hypothesis that biotic interactions with P. cinereus have restricted the range of P. hubrichti. I found no partitioning of food resources in sympatry and no evidence of sympatric morphological divergence. Conversely, there was significant evidence supporting the hypothesis that abiotic forces affected the distribution of P. hubrichti. There was a significant association between local environmental variables and average population morphology, as well as significant morphological convergence of the two species in sympatry, both consistent with adaptation to the local environment. Additionally, ecological niche modeling accurately predicted the range of P. hubrichti, lending further support to this hypothesis. Most notably, even though ecological niche modeling predicted that the ecologically-viable range of P. cinereus included nearly 90% of the range of P. hubrichti, it is absent from nearly this entire region. Combined with the prior behavioral research (where P. hubrichti was the more aggressive of the two), these results strongly suggest that biotic interactions with P. hubrichti negatively impact and restrict the distribution of P. cinereus. This finding is the converse of what was predicted based upon the species distributions alone. This study provides a concrete example of how both biotic and abiotic forces interact to maintain joint species distributions and influence community structure. It also stresses the need for a pluralistic approach to community ecology as well as species' distributions that integrate multiple data sets.
Author | : Nelson G. Hairston |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 246 |
Release | : 1987-11-27 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 0521325781 |
This informative book, first published in 1987, presents the theories of community ecology within the context of a natural example. The text describes and examines issues in community ecology and shows how research on salamanders has helped to solve some of the problems surrounding the theories. Salamanders exist in stable populations of the kind assumed in community theory and are more appropriate than most other animals for research on the applications of that theory. The interesting and meaningful results, collected from observation on these excellent subjects posed challenges to beliefs within community ecology. Life histories of salamanders, fieldwork in distinctly differing habitats, competition, predation and evolution are discussed in an easily readable text. Professional ecologists and students of community ecology and herpetology will be interedted in the information synthesised in this book.
Author | : Martin L. Cody |
Publisher | : Academic Press |
Total Pages | : 621 |
Release | : 1996-10-24 |
Genre | : Nature |
ISBN | : 0080535623 |
This unique book synthesizes the ongoing long-term community ecology studies of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The studies have been conducted from deserts to rainforests as well as in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine habitats and provide valuable insight that can be obtained only through persistent, diligent, and year-after-year investigation.Long-Term Studies of Vertebrate Communities is ideal for faculty, researchers, graduate students, and undergraduates in vertebrate biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology, including ecology, natural history, and systematics. - Provides unique perspectives of community stability and variation - Details the influence of natural and other perturbations on community structure - Includes synopses by well-known authors - Presents results from a broad range of vertebrate taxa - Studies were conducted at different latitudes and in different habitats
Author | : Heather Renee Cunningham |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 166 |
Release | : 2010 |
Genre | : Electronic dissertations |
ISBN | : |
My research investigated the impact of abiotic factors and species interactions on the geographic distribution of two terrestrial salamander species, Plethodon glutinosus(Northern Slimy Salamander) and P. mississippi (Mississippi Slimy Salamander) at different spatial scales. I addressed the influence of ecological factors such as climate and topography on the relative strength of competitive interactions at broad and local scales. Often these factors are studied as independent determinants of species range limits; therefore, my research was designed to address how interactions between different ecological factors affected populations across geographic space. The novelty of my research was the methodological approach used. To my knowledge, this is the first use of ecological niche modeling in conjunction with fine scaled studies of competitive interactions to empirically test the influence of ecological factors on the relative strength of competitive interactions. At broad spatial scales the cost of competitive interactions for P. glutinosus and P. mississippiwas found to increase at the range margin relative to the interior of the range. However, along the range margin, the influence of climate and species interactions did not vary in a predictable manner. It is likely that interactions between microclimatic conditions, habitat structure, and land cover are stronger constraints on species interactions at the range margin than broad scale climate patterns. Subtle alterations in aggressive behavior, due to the introduction of a non-native congener, had little impact in local scale distribution. This is likely due to habitat structure and local abiotic conditions at the site of introduction. Overall the distributions of P. glutinosus and P. mississippi are shaped by multiple interactions between abiotic and biotic factors that differ in their relative strength at different spatial scales across geographic space. My work demonstrates the importance of considering interactions among various ecological causes of range limits and the spatial scale of investigation.
Author | : Martin L. Cody |
Publisher | : Harvard University Press |
Total Pages | : 572 |
Release | : 1975 |
Genre | : Nature |
ISBN | : 9780674224445 |
The evolution of species abundance and diversity; Competitive strategies of resource allocation; Community structure; Outlook.
Author | : Nelson G. Hairston |
Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
Total Pages | : 392 |
Release | : 1989-11-24 |
Genre | : Nature |
ISBN | : 9780521346924 |
Ecological Experiments stresses the importance to ecology of field experiments, where variables are manipulated in order to collect data on specific hypotheses, as opposed to the more passive observational method. The book begins by introducing a series of ecological questions that can be addressed experimentally for example, what is the significance of competition among species? The minimal requirements of experimental design that must be met are then introduced, together with examples of good and poor experiments from the ecological literature and a consideration of the trade-offs that may be forced on the experimenter by field conditions. All ecologists, and especially students beginning their careers in field study, will find in this text a good introduction to the experimental foundation of ecology.
Author | : Larry Bryant Crowder |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 138 |
Release | : 1978 |
Genre | : Biotic communities |
ISBN | : |
Author | : Richard C. Bruce |
Publisher | : Springer Science & Business Media |
Total Pages | : 506 |
Release | : 2000-04-30 |
Genre | : Medical |
ISBN | : 9780306463044 |
This volume offers a state-of-the-art overview of plethodontid salamanders. Readers will find the best current understanding of many aspects of the evolution, systematics, development, morphology, life history, ecology, and field methodology of these animals.
Author | : U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 826 |
Release | : 1976 |
Genre | : Animals |
ISBN | : |
Author | : Donald R. Strong Jr. |
Publisher | : Princeton University Press |
Total Pages | : 629 |
Release | : 2014-07-14 |
Genre | : Science |
ISBN | : 1400857082 |
This work is the first to focus systematically on a much-debated topic: the conceptual issues of community ecology, including the nature of evidence in ecology, the role of experiments, attempts to disprove hypotheses, and the value of negative evidence in the discipline. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.