Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 30 April 1976:
Vol. 192. no. 4238, pp. 461 - 463
DOI: 10.1126/science.192.4238.461
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Comparative Species Richness in Fluctuating and Constant Environments: Coral-Associated Decapod Crustaceans

LAWRENCE G. ABELE 1

1 Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306

The number of decapod species associated with the coral Pocillopora damicornis is compared between two regions on the Pacific coast of Panama which are of the same geologic age but differ in environmental characteristics. The relationship between number of species and coral head size does not differ between the two regions but species composition among coral heads is more variable in the fluctuating environment. Thus there are more species (55 compared to 37) associated with corals in the fluctuating environment than in the constant environment. These data impugn the concept that environmental constancy increases species richness. They support the hypothesis that species equilibrium within habitats is maintained by measurable ecological factors—in this case, the effects of a natural physical disturbance.

Submitted on December 15, 1975
Revised on February 17, 1976


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Biogeography.
D.R. Stoddart (1977)
Progress in Physical Geography 1, 537-543
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)