Community Ecology, Fall 2006

Department of Biological Science, Florida State University

T. E. Miller

These pages provide information for PCB 5446, Community Ecology for the Fall of 2006. Most of the active links have been removed as of 12/15/06. Contact T. Miller (miller@bio.fsu.edu) for information about materials on this page.

Syllabus: PDF

Directory of Topics

I. A Biased History of Community Ecology (lecture powerpoint)

II . What is a Community

A. Definitions

B. Scale and Approaches

III. Patterns in Diversity and Abundance (lecture PPT)

A. Species Number

B. Relative and Absolute Abundance Patterns (lecture PPT)

C. Trophic Structure (lecture PPT)

IV. The Niche Concept

V. Models of Competition (lecture PPTa, PPTb, PPTc)

VI. Evidence of Competition (lecture PPT)

VII. Models of Predation (lecture PPT)

VIII. Evidence of Predation

IX. Simple Community Models (3 spp. Excel Model; lecture PPT)

X. Top-down and Bottom-up Processes (lecture PPT)

XI. Metacommunities (lecture PPT for next three lectures)

XII. Evolution in Communities

XIII. Neutral Theory and Functional Groups

Expectations for when you present papers in class: how to read

Presentation Assignment: information (new!)

date	presenter	subject (and handout)	optional reading
Oct. 30	Casey terHorst	alternate stable states	Petraitis, P. S., and S. R. Dudgeon. 1999. Oikos 84:239-245
Nov. 1	Tania Kim	food chain length	Post, D. M. 2002. TREE 17:269-277.
Nov. 1	Barbara Tomlinson	long-leaf pine fragmentation and restoration	Simberloff, D. 1993. Proc. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conf. 18:1-13.
Nov. 13	Chuck Hess	intermediate disturbance hypothesis	Roxburgh, S. H., K. Shea, and J. B. Wilson. 2004. Ecology 85:359-371.
Nov. 13	Andy Lentz	fragmentation and SLOSS	McCoy, E. D., and H. R. Mushinsky. 1999. Ecology 80:2526-2538.
Nov. 15	David McNutt	top-down effects	Schmitz, O. 2003. Ecology Letters 6:156-163.
Nov. 20	Heather Gamper	community effects of seasonal dynamics	Hurlbert, A. H., and J. P. Haskell. Am. Nat. 161:83-97
Nov. 20	Amanda Buchanan	connectance in food webs	Olesen, J. M., L. I. Eskildsen, and S. Venkatasamy. 2002. Diversity and Distributions 8:181-192
Nov. 22	Deborah Fiesler	apparent mutualism	Bety et al. 2002
Nov. 27	Brendan Biggs	neutral theory, functional groups, and community stability	Pandolfi, J. M. 2006. Nature 440:35-36 Dornelas, M., S. R. Connolly, and T. P. Hughes. 2006. Nature 440:80-82
Nov. 29	Brian Spiesman	integrating landscape and food-web ecologies	Polis et al. 1997. ARES 28:289-316
Nov. 29	Ben Nomann	corridors and habitat fragmentation	Damschen, et al. 2006. Science 313:1284-1286
Dec. 4	Jimmy Nelson	community scale and ecosystem subsidies	Deegan L. 1993. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 50:74-79.

Homework Assignments:

1. Community Data and a short R guide to community analyses

2. Experiment with your own community using FakeCom 1.0b!

3. Now, Assignment 3 will let you experiment using FakeMetaCom_c!

4. Assignment 4 will be based on the handout you make for your presentation

Assigned Reading:

date	reading
8/28/06:	Werner, E., and D. Hall. 1976. Niche shifts in sunfishes: Experimental evidence and significance. Science 191:404-406. Paine, R. T. 1980. Food webs: linkage, interactions strength and community infrastructure. J. Anim. Ecol. 49:667-685.
8/30/06:	Fukami, T., T. Bezemer, S. Mortimer, and W. H. van der Putten. 2005. Species divergence and trait convergence in experimental plant community assembly. Ecology Letters 8:1283-1290. Hubbell, S. P. 1979. Tree dispersion, abundance, and diversity in a tropical dry forest. Science 203:1299-1309.
9/11/06:	Hairston, N. G., F. E. Smith, and L. B. Slobodkin. 1960. Community structure, population control, and competition. Am. Nat. 94:421-425. Simberloff, D., and E. O. Wilson. 1969. Experimental zoogeography of islands: the colonization of empty islands. Ecology 50:278-296.
9/18/06:	Hutchinson, G. E. 1959. Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why are there so many kinds of animals? American Naturalist 93:145-159. May, R. M. and R. H. MacArthur. 1972. Niche overlap as a function of environmental variability. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 69:1109-1113.
10/4/06:	Tilman, D. 1981. Experimental tests of resource competition theory using four species of Lake Michigan Algae. Ecology 62:802-815.
10/9/06:	Holbrook, S. J. and R. J. Schmitt. 1989. Resource overlap, prey dynamics, and the strength of competition. Ecology 70:1943-1953. Connell, J. 1983. On the prevalence and relative importance of interspecific competition: evidence from field experiments. Am. Nat. 122:661-696.
10/16/06:	Miller, et al. 2005. Bender, E. A., T. J. Case, and M. E. Gilpin. 1984. Perturbation experiments in community ecology: theory and practice. Ecology 65:1-13.
10/23/06:	Bender, E. A., T. J. Case, and M. E. Gilpin. 1984. Perturbation experiments in community ecology: theory and practice. Ecology 65:1-13. Caswell, H. 1978. Predator-mediated coexistence: a nonequilibrium model. American naturalist 112:127-154.
10/30/06:	Connell, J. 1978. Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Science 199:1302-1310.
11/13/06:	Leibold, M. A. 1996. A graphical model of keystone predators in food webs: trophic regulation of abundance, incidence, and diversity patterns in communities. Am. Nat. 147:784-812.
11/20/06:	Kneitel, J. M., and J. M. Chase. 2004. Trade-offs in community ecology: linking spatial scales and species coexistence. Ecology Letters 7:69-80. Leibold, M. A., and T. E. Miller. 2004. From metapopulations to metacommunities. Pp. 133-150 in Hanski, I., and O. Gaggiotti (eds.), Ecology, Genetics, and Evolution of Metapopulations. Academic Press. (sorry, large file!)
12/4/06:	Leibold, M. A., and M. A. McPeek. 2006. Coexistence of the niche and neutral perspectives in community ecology. Ecology 87:1399-1410. O'Conner, R. J. 2000. Why ecology lags behind biology.

1. Describing Communities

Abele, L. G. and K. Walters. 1979. Marine benthic diversity: a critique and alternative explanation. Journal of Biogeography 6:115-126.
Gotelli, N. J., and R. K. Colwell. 2001. Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecology Letters 4:379-391.
Hill, M. O. Diversity and evenness: a unifying notation and its consequences. Ecology 54:427-432.
James, F. C., and N. O. Wamer. 1982. Relationships between temperate forest bird communities and vegetation structure. Ecology 63:159-171.
McCabe, D. J., and N. J. Gotelli. 2000. Effects of disturbance frequency, intensity, and area on assemblages of stream invertebrates. Oecologia 124:270-279.
Sanders, H. L. 1968. Marine benthic diversity: a comparative study. American Naturalist 102:243-282.

species relative abundance references

Fisher, R. A., A. S. Corbet and C. B. Williams. 1943. The relation between the number of species and the number of individuals in a random sample of an animal population. Journal of Animal Ecology 12:42-58.
Hubbell, S. P. 1997. A unified theory of biogeography and relative species abundance and its application to tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Coral Reefs 16, Suppl.: S9-S21..
MacArthur, R. H. 1957. On the relative abundance of bird species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 43:293-295.
MacArthur, R. H. 1960. On the relative abundance of species. American Naturalist 45:25-36.
Preston, F. W. 1948. The commonness and rarity of species. Ecology 29:254-283.
Simberloff, D., and E. O. Wilson. 1969. Experimental zoogeography of islands: the colonization of empty islands. Ecology 50:278-296
Tokeshi, M. 1990. Niche apportionment or random assortment: species abundance patterns revisited. Journal of Animal Ecology 59:1129-1146.

food web references

Briand, F. 1983. Environmental control of food web structure. Ecology 64:253-263.
Cohen, J. E. 1978. Food webs and niche space. Monographs in Population Biology 11. Princeton Univ. Press.
Murtaugh, P. A. and J. P. Kollath. 1997. Variation of trophic fractions and connectance in food webs. Ecology 78:1382-1387.
Pimm, S. L. 1984. The complexity and stability of ecosystems. Nature 307:321-326.
Polis, G. A. 1991. Complex trophic interactions in deserts: an empirical critique of food-web theory. American Naturalist 138:123-155.
Polis, G. A. and D. R. Strong. 1996. Food web complexity and community dynamics. Am Nat 147:813
Schoenly, K., R. Beaver, and T. Heumier. 1991. On the trophic relations of insects: a food web approach. American Naturalist 137:597-638.

2. The Niche and Competition

Ashbourne, SRC and RJ Putman. 1987. Competition, resource-partitioning ... Acta Oecologia (Generalis) 8:43-56
Herbold, B., and P.B. Moyle. 1986. Introduced species and vacant niches. American Naturalist 128: 751-760.
Hutchinson, G. E. 1944. Limnological studies in Connecticut. VII. A critical examination of the supposed relationship between phytoplankton periodicity and chemical changes in lake water. Ecology 25:3-26.
Lawton, J.L. 1982. Vacant niches and unsaturated communities: a comparison of bracken herbivores in two continents. J. Animal Ecol. 51:573-596.
Lawton, J.L. 1984. Non-competitive populations, non-convergent communities and vacant niches...Pp 67-95 In: Strong, Simperloff, Abele and Thistle (eds). Ecological Communities.
Leibold, M. A. 1995. The niche concept revisited: mechanistic models and community context. Ecology 76:1371-1382 (Special Feature: Concepts Section)..
MacArthur, R. H. 1958. Population ecology of some warblers of northeastern coniferous forests. Ecology 39:599-619.
May, R. M., and R. H. MacArthur. 1972. Niche overlap as a function of environmental variability. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 69:1109-1113.
Prieur-Richard AH, Lavorel S. 2000. Invasions: the perspective of diverse plant communities. Austral Ecology 25 (1): 1-7.
Pulliam, R. 1975. Coexistence of sparrows: a test of community theory. Science 189:474-476.
Pulliam, H. R. 1983. Ecological community theory and the coexistence of sparrows. Ecology 64:45-52.
Vandermeer, J. 1972. Niche Theory. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 3:107-132.
Walker, T.D., and J.W. Valentine. 1984. Equilibrium models of evolutionary species diversity and the number of empty niches. American Naturalist 124: 887-899.

competition references

Abrams, P. A. 1987. Alternative models of character displacement and niche shift. I. Adaptive shifts in resource use when there is competition for nutritionally nonsubstitutable resources. Evolution 41:651-66.
Ayala, Gilpin, and Ehrenfeld. 1973. Competition between species: Theoretical models and experimental tests. Theor. Popul. Biol. 4:331-356.
Case, T. J. 1991. Invasion resistance, species build-up and community collapse in metapopulation models with interspecies competition. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 42:239-266.
Drake, J.A. 1990. Communities as assembled structures: do rules govern patterns? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 5: 159-164.
Gilpin and Case (1976. Nature 261:40-42)
Levins. 1968. Evolution in Changing Environments. Princeton Univ. Press).Volterra, Vito. 1926.
May 1975. Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems. Princeton University Press.
Miller, T. E. 1994.
Neill (1974).
Pearl.
Reed
Richmond, et al. (1975. Ecology 56:709-714)
Vandermeer (1969. Ecology 50:363-371)
Volterra, Vito. 1926.
Volterra, Vito. 1926.

Indirect Effects

Davidson, Diane W.
Volterra, Vito. 1926.
Lawlor's (1979. Oecologia 43:355-364)
Levine, S. 1976. Am. Nat. 110:903-910).
Levin, R. 1975. Ecology and Evolution of Communities.

Tilman's Resource Ratio Hypothesis

Tilman, D. 1977. Resource competition between planktonic algae: an experimental and theoretical approach. Ecology 58:338-348.
Tilman, D. 1980. Resources: a graphical-mechanistic approach to competition and predation. Am. Nat. 116:362-393.
Tilman, D. 1982. Resource competition and community structure. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Tilman, D. 1985. The resource-ratio hypothesis of plant succession. Am. Nat. 125:827-852.

3. Predation

Brooks, J. L. and S. I. Dodson. 1965. Predation, body size, and composition of plankton. Science 150:28-35.
Caswell, H. 1978. Am. Nat. 112:127-154.
Holt, R. 1984. Am. Nat. 124:377-406.
Horn and MacArthur. 1972. Ecology 53:749-752.
Huffaker, C. B. 1958. Experimental studies on predation: Dispersion factors and predator-prey oscillations. Hilgardia 27:343-383.
Levins and Culver. 1971. PNAS 68:1246-1248.
Huffaker, C. B. 1958. Experimental studies on predation: Dispersion factors and predator-prey oscillations. Hilgardia 27:343-383.
Huffaker, C. B. 1958. Experimental studies on predation: Dispersion factors and predator-prey oscillations. Hilgardia 27:343-383.
Schmitt, R. J. 1987. Indirect interactions between prey: apparent competition, predator aggression, and habitat segregation. Ecology 68:1887-1897.

4. Quantifying Interactions

Abrams, P. A. 2001. Describing and quantifying interspecific interactions: a commentary on recent approaches. OIKOS 94:209-218.
Berlow, E. L., S. A. Navarette, C. J. Briggs, M. E. Power, and B. A. Menge. 1999. Quantifying variation in the strengths of species interactions. Ecology 80:2206-2224.
Cousens, R. 1991. Design and interpretation of competition experiments. Weed Tech. 5:664-673.
deWit, C.T. 1960. On competition. Versl. Landbouwkd. Onderz. 66:1-82.
Donald, C.M. 1951. Competition among pasture plants. I. Intraspecific competition among annual pasture plants. Aust. J. Agr. Res. 2:355-376.
Firbank, L.G. and A.R. Watkinson. 1985. On the analysis of competition within two-species mixtures of plants. J. Appl. Ecol. 22:503-517.
Goldberg, D.E. and P.A. Werner. 1983. Equivalence of competitors in plant communities: a null hypothesis and a field experimental approach. Am. J. Bot. 70:1098
Grace, J. B. 1995. On the measurement of plant competition intensity. Ecol. 76:305-308
Harper, J.L. 1977. Population biology of plants. Academic Press.
Hughes, J. B., and J. Roughgarden. 1998. Aggregate community properties and the strength of species' interactions PNAS 95:6837-6842
Mack, R.N. and J.L. Harper. 1977. Interference in dune annuals: spatial patterns and neighborhood effects. J. Ecol. 65:345.
Paine, R. T. Food web analysis through field measurement of per capita interaction strength. Nature 355:73-75.
Schoener, T. W. 1993. On the relative importance of direct versus indirect effects in ecological communities. – In: Kawanabe, H., Cohen, J. E. and Iwasaki, K. (eds), Mutualism and community organization. Oxford Univ. Press, pp. 365–411.
Spitters, C.J.T. 1983. An alternative approach to the analysis of mixed cropping experiments. 1. Estimation of competition effects. Neth. J. Agric. Sci. 31:1-11.
Trenbath, B.R. 1976. Multiple Cropping. ASA Special Publ. No. 27, American Soc. of Agronomy. 129 p.
Watkinson, A. R. 1981. Interference in pure and mixed populations of Agrostemma githago L. J. Appl. Ecol. 18:967-976.
Watkinson, A.R. 1984. Yield-density relationships: the influence of resource availability on growth and self-thinning in populations of Vulpia fasciculata. Annals of Botany. 53:469-482.
Weiner, J. 1982. A neighborhood model of annual-plant interference. Ecol. 63:1237-1241.

5. Succession and Assembly

Clements. 1916. Plant succession. Carn. Inst. Wash. Publ. 242.
Connell, J. H., and R. O. Slatyer. 1977. Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization. Am. Nat. 111:1119-1144.
Drury, W. H., and I. C. T. Nisbet. 1973. Succession. J. Arnold Arboretum 54:331-368.
Egler, F. 1952. Vegetation science concepts. I. Initial floristic composition a factor in old-field vegetation development. Vegetation 4:412-417.
Gleason, H. A. 1917. The structure and development of the plant association. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 44:463-481.
Gleason, H. A. 1926. The individualistic concept of the plant association. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 53:7-26.
Huston and Smith. 1987. Am. Nat. 130:168-198
Odum, E. P. 1969. The strategy of ecosystem development. Science 164:262-270.
Tanner, J. E., T. P. Hughes, and J. H. Connell. 1994. Species coexistence, keystone species, and succession: a sensitivity analysis. Ecology 75:2204-2219.
Tilman 1988, Ecology 67:555-563

6. Nonequilibria and Scale

Dunson WA and Travis J. 1991. The role of abiotic factors in community organization. Am Nat 138:1067-1091.
Connell , J.H. 1978.
Paine, R. T. and Vadas.
Miller, T. 1982. Community diversity and interactions between the size and frequency of disturbance. Am. Nat. 120:533-536
Abugov, R. 1982. Species diversity and phasing of disturbance. Ecology 63:289-293
Huston (1979, 1994
Wootton 1998)