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Science 19 September 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5640, pp. 1717 - 1720
DOI: 10.1126/science.1087809
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Reports

Island Biology and Ecosystem Functioning in Epiphytic Soil Communities

David A. Wardle,1,2* Gregor W. Yeates,3 Gary M. Barker,4 Peter J. Bellingham,2 Karen I. Bonner,2 Wendy M. Williamson2

Although island attributes such as size and accessibility to colonizing organisms can influence community structure, the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning are little understood. A study of the suspended soils of spatially discrete epiphytes or treetop "islands" in the canopies of New Zealand rainforest trees revealed that different components of the decomposer community responded either positively or negatively to island size, as well as to the tree species that the islands occurred in. This in turn led to important differences between islands in the rates of ecosystem processes driven by the decomposer biota. This system serves as a model for better understanding how attributes of both real and habitat islands may affect key ecosystem functions through determining the community structure of organisms that drive these functions.

1 Department of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Faculty of Forestry, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S901-83 Umeå, Sweden.
2 Landcare Research, Post Office Box 69, Lincoln, New Zealand.
3 Landcare Research, Private Bag 11052, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
4 Landcare Research, Private Bag 3127, Hamilton, New Zealand.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: david.wardle{at}svek.slu.se

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Long-term ecological dynamics: reciprocal insights from natural and anthropogenic gradients.
T. Fukami and D. A Wardle (2005)
Proc R Soc B 272, 2105-2115
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)