Habitat Structure

We conceived the idea for this book after teaching a graduate seminar on 'Habitat Complexity' at The University of South Florida. Discussions during the seminar led us to conclude that similar goals were to be found in studies of the topic that spanned the breadth of ecological research. Yet, the exact meaning of 'habitat structure', and the way in which it was measured, seemed to differ widely among subdisciplines. Our own research, which involves several sorts of ecology, convinced us that the differences among subdisciplines were indeed real ones, and that they did inhibit communica­ tion. We decided that interchange of ideas among researchers working in marine ecology, plant-animal interactions, physiological ecology, and other more-or-less independent fields would be worthwhile, in that it might lead to useful generalizations about 'habitat structure'. To foster this interchange of ideas. we organized a symposium to attract researchers working with a wide variety of organisms living in many habitats, but united in their interest in the topic of 'habitat structure'. The symposium was held at The University of South Florida's Chinsegut Hill Conference Center, in May. 1988. We asked participants to think about 'habitat structure' in new ways; to synthesize important, but fragmented, information; and. perhaps. to consider ways of translating ideas across systems. The chapters contained in this book reflect the participants' attempts to do so. The book is divided into four parts, by major themes that we have found useful categorizations.

One Patterns.- 1 Habitat structure: the evolution and diversification of a complex topic.- 1.1 ‘Habitat structure’ in ecology.- 1.2 A graphical model of ‘habitat structure’.- 2 Development of habitat structure through succession in an Amazonian floodplain forest.- 2.1 Riparian primary succession in upper Amazonia: an overview.- 2.2 Methods.- 2.3 Results.- 2.4 Discussion.- 2.5 Conclusions.- 3 Habitat diversity and the species-area relationship: alternative models and tests.- 3.1 Alternative models of the species—area relationship.- 3.2 Protocols for the separation of causal mechanisms.- 3.3 Conclusions.- 4 Fractal geometry of ecological habitats.- 4.1 The geometry of simple fractals.- 4.2 Self-similarity and ways of estimating fractal dimensions.- 4.3 Ecological consequences of fractals.- 4.4 Size distributions.- 4.5 Range distributions.- 4.6 Abundance distributions.- 4.7 The reddened spectrum.- 4.8 Conclusions.- 5 The effect of habitat structure on the spatial distribution of freshwater invertebrate populations.- 5.1 Zooplankton.- 5.2 Profundal benthos.- 5.3 Littoral benthic invertebrates.- 5.4 Unionid mussels in the sandy littoral zone.- 5.5 Conclusions.- Two Responses: colonization, succession, resource use.- 6 Habitat structure and morphological patterns in arboreal vertebrates.- 6.1 Habitat structure and locomotion.- 6.2 Locomotion and morphology.- 6.3 Conclusions.- 7 Microtopography as habitat structure for mosses on rocks.- 7.1 The advantage of simplicity.- 7.2 Scheme for functional analysis.- 7.3 Quantifying habitat structure.- 7.4 Correlating habitat structure and community structure.- 7.5 Correlation of habitat structure and resource availability.- 7.6 The functional link between habitat and community structure.- 7.7 Conclusions.- 8 The effects of changes in habitat structure during succession in terrestrial communities.- 8.1 Changes in habitat structure during succession.- 8.2 Effects of changing habitat structure on associated organisms.- 8.3 Conclusions.- 9 Influence of patch size, vegetation texture, and host plant architecture on the diversity, abundance, and life history styles of sap-feeding herbivores.- 9.1 Responses of insect herbivores to vegetation texture and architectural complexity: an overview.- 9.2 Species—area relationships for sap-feeders.- 9.3 Sap-feeder abundance and patch size.- 9.4 Abundance—area relationships explained by life-history characteristics.- 9.5 Host plant density and vegetation diversity.- 9.6 Architectural complexity and sap-feeder richness.- 9.7 Architectural complexity, habitat persistence and sap-feeder life histories.- 9.8 Other considerations.- 9.9 Conclusions.- 10 Habitat structure and recruitment in coral reef fishes.- 10.1 Segregation of fish species among habitats.- 10.2 Recruitment of reef fishes.- 10.3 Habitat responses at settlement.- 10.4 Variability in recruitment.- 10.5 Habitat structure and the structure of reef fish assemblages.- 10.6 Conclusions.- 11 Habitat structure and community dynamics in marine benthic systems.- 11.1 Examples from marine benthic systems.- 11.2 Processes connecting habitat structure and community dynamics.- Three Responses: predation, parasitism, disturbance.- 12 The influence of fire periodicity on habitat structure.- 12.1 The ecology of fire.- 12.2 Effects of fire on habitat heterogeneity and plant structure.- 12.3 Post-fire habitat structure and mechanisms of regeneration.- 12.4 Post-fire animal responses to vegetation structure.- 12.5 Case studies.- 12.6 Conclusions.- 13 A new look at habitat structure: consequences of herbivore-modified plant architecture.- 13.1 How herbivores influence plant architecture.- 13.2 Consequences for plants of architecture modified as a result of herbivory.- 13.3 Consequences for herbivores of architecture modified as a result of herbivory.- 13.4 Herbivore-modified architecture and the evolution of plant form.- 13.5 Conclusions.- 14 Habitat structure and predator-prey interactions in vegetated aquatic systems.- 14.1 Vegetation properties.- 14.2 Individual prey and predator characteristics.- 14.3 Food web interactions in complex aquatic habitats.- 14.4 Marine—freshwater comparisons.- 14.5 Conclusions.- 15 The influence of habitat structure on the transmission of parasites.- 15.1 Habitat structure: the parasite’s perspective.- 15.2 Modes of parasite transmission.- 15.3 Influence of habitat structure on transmission: some examples.- 15.4 Conclusions.- 16 Habitat structure and spider foraging.- 16.1 Relationships between spiders and habitat structure.- 16.2 Spider diversity and habitat structure.- 16.3 The influence of habitat structure at the species, population, and individual level.- 16.4 Current research on spider behaviour and habitat structure.- 16.5 Conclusions.- 17 The influence of habitat structure and environmental stability on the species diversity of polychaetes in vermetid reefs.- 17.1 Habitat structure, environmental stability and species diversity.- 17.2 Exploring the effect of structure and disturbance on diversity.- 17.3 An example: polychaete communities in vermetid reefs.- 17.4 Role of disturbance: Nereididae subset of the polychaete assemblage.- 17.5 Discussion.- Four Applications.- 18 Habitat structure and the design of nature reserves.- 18.1 Species—area relationships, syntaxa, habitats and shape.- 18.2 An example: limestone pavements in Yorkshire.- 18.3 Discussion.- 18.4 Conclusions.- 19 The ecology and structure of urban greenspaces.- 19.1 Urban landscapes and agricultural landscapes.- 19.2 Origins and structure of urban greenspaces.- 19.3 Urban greenspaces as ‘edge’ communities.- 19.4 Two approaches to urban ecology.- 19.5 Conclusions.- 20 Habitat structure and the design of artificial reefs.- 20.1 Methods.- 20.2 Results.- 20.3 Discussion and conclusions.- 21 Habitat structure: synthesis and perspectives.- Species index.