Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) is an independent organization devoted to the development of standards.

American Society for Testing and Materials

Nature And Properties Of Soils

Much as Rachel Carson's \"Silent Spring\" was a call to action against the pesticides that were devastating bird populations, Charles S. Elton's classic \"The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants\" sounded an early warning about an environmental catastrophe that has become all too familiar today-the invasion of nonnative species. From kudzu to zebra mussels to Asian long-horned beetles, nonnative species are colonizing new habitats around the world at an alarming rate thanks to accidental and intentional human intervention. One of the leading causes of extinctions of native animals and plants, invasive species also wreak severe economic havoc, causing $79 billion worth of damage in the United States alone. Elton explains the devastating effects that invasive species can have on local ecosystems in clear, concise language and with numerous examples. The first book on invasion biology, and still the most cited, Elton's masterpiece provides an accessible, engaging introduction to one of the most important environmental crises of our time. Charles S. Elton was one of the founders of ecology, who also established and led Oxford University's Bureau of Animal Population. His work has influenced generations of ecologists and zoologists, and his publications remain central to the literature in modern biology. \"History has caught up with Charles Elton's foresight, and \"The Ecology of Invasions\" can now be seen as one of the central scientific books of our century.\"-David Quammen, from the Foreword to \"Killer Algae: The True Tale of a Biological Invasion\

The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants

Sustainability assessment is being increasingly viewed as an important tool to aid in the shift towards sustainability. However, this is a new and evolving concept and there remain very few examples of effective sustainability assessment processes implemented anywhere in the world. Sustainability assessment is often described as a process by which the implications of an initiative on sustainability are evaluated, where the initiative can be a proposed or existing policy, plan, programme, project, piece of legislation, or a current practice or activity. However, this generic definition covers a broad range of different processes, many of which have been described in the literature as 'sustainability assessment'. This article seeks to provide some clarification by reflecting on the different approaches described in the literature as being forms of sustainability assessment, and evaluating them in terms of their potential contributions to sustainability. Many of these are actually examples of 'integrated assessment', derived from environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA), but which have been extended to incorporate social and economic considerations as well as environmental ones, reflecting a 'triple bottom line' (TBL) approach to sustainability. These integrated assessment processes typically either seek to minimise 'unsustainability', or to achieve TBL objectives. Both aims may, or may not, result in sustainable practice. We present an alternative conception of sustainability assessment, with the more ambitious aim of seeking to determine whether or not an initiative is actually sustainable. We term such processes 'assessment for sustainability'. 'Assessment for sustainability' firstly requires that the concept of sustainability be well-defined. The article compares TBL approaches and principles-based approaches to developing such sustainability criteria, concluding that the latter are more appropriate, since they avoid many of the inherent limitations of the triple-bottom-line as a conception of sustainability.

Conceptualising sustainability assessment

Despite an upsurge of interest in spatial interactions between communities and in the impact of dispersal on ecological and evolutionary processes, dispersal patterns and dynamics in natural metacommunities remain poorly understood. Although passive aerial dispersal of freshwater invertebrates is generally accepted, the frequency and relative importance of wind as a vector is still subject of considerable debate. We assessed the importance of wind dispersal in an invertebrate metacommunity in a cluster of 36 temporary rock pools on an isolated mountaintop in South Africa. Wind dispersal was quantified every four days using nine windsocks (about 1.5 m above rock base), placed in the field during one month. Distance to the nearest pool varied from 2 up to 16 m. Wind direction and speed were monitored for the entire period. About 850 propagules (mostly resting eggs) of 17 taxa were captured. The presence of water in the pools (level of exposure of the dormant propagule bank) and the dominant wind direction were the key factors affecting the yield. Wind speed was much less important. Our results suggest that wind dispersal of propagules from temporary aquatic systems is more frequent than previously thought. This may stabilise the metacommunity by mediating gene flow among populations and facilitating rapid (re)colonisation of patches. On the other hand, wind erosion of the dormant propagule bank may lead to egg bank depletion and local extinction. The measured frequent wind dispersal most likely fuels strong species sorting processes ultimately shaping the structure of the local communities as observed in an earlier study. To elucidate the link between local dispersal rates and their contribution to long range dispersal is a major challenge for future research on aerial dispersal of aquatic invertebrates.

Any way the wind blows ‐ frequent wind dispersal drives species sorting in ephemeral aquatic communities

Explaining the variance of local communities in a spatial-environmental matrix is one of the core interests of ecology today. Recent progress in metacommunity theory has made a substantial contribution to this field, however good empirical data in support of available theories are still relatively scarce. In this study we sampled a cluster of 36 temporary rock pools four times during one season to assess invertebrate metacommunity structure and dynamics and to search for steering processes and variables. Both Mantel tests and redundancy models indicate that local abiotic factors were dominant over spatial factors in explaining community structure and both were acting independently. Spatial variables were only important for passive dispersers and significantly explained 11% of variation in this community component. Pools connected by temporary overflows hosted more similar communities of passive dispersers than unconnected ones while community dissimilarity significantly increased with inter-pool distance. A negative curvilinear relation was discovered between taxon richness and isolation in passive dispersers, providing some support for existing theoretical models of Mouquet and Loreau. Of different metacommunity perspectives, a combination of species sorting and mass effects best explains the observed patterns. Additionally, priority effects and monopolization may buffer against the homogenising effects of dispersal and contribute to the distinctness of isolated communities. This is one of the first studies to present evidence for spatial patterns in aquatic communities on such a small spatial scale (a rock ledge of 99000 m 2 ). Bridging the gap between theory and observed patterns in natural systems is one of the main challenges for future metacommunity research. Small aquatic habitats such as pitcher plants and freshwater rock pools may well have an important role to play as model systems to study ecological processes in a natural spatially explicit environment.

The role of metacommunity processes in shaping invertebrate rock pool communities along a dispersal gradient

The extent and frequency of passive overland dispersal of freshwater invertebrates as well as the relative importance of different dispersal vectors is not well documented. Although anecdotal evidence subscribing the feasibility of individual vectors in various aquatic systems is abundant, dispersal rates have rarely been quantified for different vectors in one study system. Earlier studies also usually investigated dispersal potential rather than actual dispersal rates. In this study we have estimated passive dispersal rates of invertebrate propagules within a cluster of temporary rock pools via water, wind and amphibians in a direct way. Overflows after heavy rains mediated dispersal of a large number of propagules through eroded channels between pools, which were collected in overflow traps. Taking into account model based predictions of overflow frequency, this corresponds with average dispersal rates of 4088 propagules/channel yr−1. Wind dispersal rates as measured by numbers of propagules collected on sticky traps mounted between pool basins were very high (average dispersal rate: 649 propagules m−2 in one month) and were positively related to the proximity of source populations. Finally, invertebrate propagules were also isolated from the faeces of African clawed frogs Xenopus laevis caught from the pools (on average 368 propagules/frog).



The combination of short distance wind and overflow dispersal rates likely explain the dominant species sorting and mass effect patterns observed in the metacommunity in a previous study. Amphibian mediated dispersal was much less important as the Xenopus laevis population was small and migrations very rare.



Based on our own results and available literature we conclude that both vector and propagule properties determine local passive dispersal dynamics of freshwater invertebrates. Accurate knowledge on rates and vectors of dispersal in natural systems are a prerequisite to increase our understanding of the impact of dispersal on ecology (colonisation, community assembly, coexistence) and evolution (gene flow, local adaptation) in fragmented environments.

Relative importance of different dispersal vectors for small aquatic invertebrates in a rock pool metacommunity

Summary
1. Hydroregime (duration, frequency and predictability of the aquatic phase) is a key feature of temporary aquatic habitats that not only moulds community structure and diversity (species sorting) but also life history characteristics of the inhabitants (natural selection). However, since hydroregime is a complex multidimensional entity that cannot be estimated from short term observations, morphometric variables are commonly used as proxies for hydroregime, making it impossible to separate effects of habitat size and hydroregime on biota.

2. We have used a simple hydrological model, validated with recent (average r2 = 96%) and historic water level observations (average r2 = 81%), to accurately reconstruct hydroregime based on historical rainfall and evaporation data in a cluster of 36 temporary rock pools in central South Africa.

3. Using the model output, we demonstrated that both hydroregime and habitat size had unique and shared effects on temporary pool biota and that these effects depended on the dispersal modes of the taxa. Model-generated hydrological data explained more variation in community patterns than short-term observations of hydroperiod. Hydroregime was more important for passive dispersers than for active dispersers that can migrate when pools dry up. Basin morphometry was a relatively poor predictor of pool hydroregime. We concluded that simple modelling may greatly improve the resolution of studies linking hydroregime to biological variables.

4. An accurate account of hydrological variation provides a firm foundation to understand community and population structure and dynamics in temporary aquatic habitats. Since many of these habitats have been destroyed or degraded in recent decades, our findings and tools may contribute to the development of reliable conservation guidelines.

Community structure in temporary freshwater pools: disentangling the effects of habitat size and hydroregime

Ecosystems generally are not stable over long periods of time and are subject to disturbances of different frequencies and intensities. As a result, natural communities usually are not in equilibrium, and temporal snapshots can show different stages of community assembly. Nonequilibrium is especially common in temporary aquatic systems where desiccation continuously resets the development of communities and hydroperiod is an important determinant of species richness and community structure. We investigated effects of disturbance regime on community assembly of aquatic invertebrates in a cluster of 36 temporary rock pools in central South Africa. Pools were assigned to 4 categories based on their long-term disturbance regime and were sampled 4 times during 1 inundation. Disturbance modulated the relative importance of deterministic and stochastic processes driving community assembly and reduced both α and β diversity. Premature desiccation truncated community development. Initial communities were d...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1899/09-114.1

Maitland T. Seaman

Papers

Any way the wind blows ‐ frequent wind dispersal drives species sorting in ephemeral aquatic communities

The role of metacommunity processes in shaping invertebrate rock pool communities along a dispersal gradient

Relative importance of different dispersal vectors for small aquatic invertebrates in a rock pool metacommunity

Community structure in temporary freshwater pools: disentangling the effects of habitat size and hydroregime

Species sorting in space and time—the impact of disturbance regime on community assembly in a temporary pool metacommunity