Table Of ContentEcological Studies
Analysis and Synthesis
Edited by
WD. Billings, Durham (USA) F. Golley, Athens (USA)
O.L. Lange, Wiirzburg (FRG) 1.S. Olson, Oak Ridge (USA)
H. Remmert, Marburg (FRG)
Volume 69
Ecological Studies
Volume 57 Volume 63
Forest Ecosystems in the Alaskan Taiga Long-Term Forest Dynamics
A Synthesis of Structure and Function of the Temperate Zone
Edited by K. Van Cleve, F.S. Chapin III, By Paul A. Delcourt and Hazel R Delcourt
LA. Viereck, C.T. Dyrness and 1987. XIV, 45Op., 90 figures, 333 maps. cloth
P.W. Flanagan ISBN 0-387-96495-9
1986. X, 240p., 81 figures. cloth
ISBN 0-387-%251-4 Volume 64
Landscape Heterogeneity and Disturbance
Edited by Monica Goigel Turner
Volume 58
1987. XII, 241p., 56 figures. cloth
Ecology of Biological Invasions
ISBN 0-387-96497-5
of North America and Hawaii
Edited by HA. Mooney and JA. Drake
1986. X, 32Op., 25 figures. cloth Volume 65
ISBN 0-387-%289-1 Community Ecology of Sea Otters
Edited by G.R van Blaricom and JA. Estes
1987. X, 28Op., 71 figures. cloth
Volume 59
ISBN 3-540-18090-7
Acid Deposition and the Acidification
of Soils and Waters
Volume 66
An Analysis
Forest Hydrology and Ecology at Coweeta
By J.~. Reuss and D.W. Johnson
Edited by W.T. Swank and DA. Crossley, Jr.
1986. VIII, 12Op., 37 figures. cloth
1987. XIV, 512p., 151 figures. cloth
ISBN 0-387-%290-5
ISBN 0-387-%547-5
Volume 60 Volume 67
Amazonian Rain Forests Concepts of Ecosystem Ecology
Ecosystem Disturbance and Recovery A Comparative View
Edited by Carl F. Jordan Edited by L.R Pomeroy
1987. X, 133p., 55 figures. cloth and J.1. Alberts
ISBN 0-387-96397-9 1988. XII, 384p., 93 figures. cloth
ISBN 0-387-96686-2
Volume 61 Volume 68
Potentials and Limitations Stable Isotopes in Ecological Research
of Ecosystem Analysis Edited by P.W. Rundel, J.R Ehleringer
Edited by E.-D. Schulze and H. Zwolfer and KA. Nagy
1987. XII, 435p., 141 figures. cloth 1989. XVI, 544p., 164 figures. cloth
ISBN 0-387-17138-X ISBN 0-387-%712-5
Volume 69
Volume 62 Vertebrates in Complex Tropical Systems
Frost Survival of Plants Edited by M.L. Harmelin-Vivien
By A. Sakai and W. Larcher and F. Bourliere
1987. XII, 321p., 200 figures, 78 tables. cloth 1989. XI, 200p., 17 figures. cloth
ISBN 0-387-17332-3 ISBN 0-387-%740-0
M.L. Harmelin-Vivien F. Bourliere
Editors
Vertebrates
in Complex Tropical Systems
With 17 Figures
Springer-Verlag
New York Berlin Heidelberg
London Paris Tokyo
Mireille L. Harmeiin-Vivien Franc;;ois Bourliere
Centre d'Oceanoiogie de Marseille Universire Rene Descartes
Station Marine d'Endoume Departement de Physioiogie
F-13007 Marseille, France F-75007 Paris, France
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vertebrates in complex tropical systems/edited by M.L. Harmelin
-Vivien and F. Bourliere.
p. cm. - (Ecological studies; v. 69)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Vertebrates -Tropics - Ecology. 2. Vertebrates -Tropics.
I. Harmelin-Vivien, M. L. (Mireille L.) II. Bourliere, Franltois,
1913- . ill. Series.
QL606.6.V47 1989
596'.052623-dc 19 88-16019
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-8133-7 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-3510-1
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4612-3510-1
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1989
© 1989 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permis
sion of the publisher (Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA), except for brief
excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed is forbidden.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc. in this publication, even if the former
are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks
and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone.
Typeset by Publishers Service, Bozeman, Montana
Printed and bound by Edwards Brothers, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
9 8 7 6 5 432 I
Introduction
This book addresses the question of what determines species richness in tropical
animals by comparing and contrasting the communities of the five major classes of
vertebrates in two environments considered to be the most species-rich on Planet
Earth - the coral reef and the rainforest. All the contributors were asked to examine
how so many species could coexist in such communities and to discuss the ways species
assemblages might have evolved over time. Because the coauthors are ecologists,
emphasis is quite naturally placed on the first of these two questions, and the factors
contributing to the maintenance of a-diversity are discussed at length. However, the
question of the very origin of species richness can never be eluded, though it is more
an evolutionary problem than an ecological one; it has therefore also been given some
attention occasionally. Since we believe that long-term descriptive data and extended
field experience are absolutely essential to formulate meaningful questions and pro
pose realistic models, contributors were selected on the basis of their prolonged field
practice; all of them actually spent years in the field and/or participated in long-term
research programs.
The present volume has its origin in a symposium held on August 15, 1986 at Syra
cuse, New York, during the Fourth International Congress of Ecology. Although the
time at our disposal was far too short to allow for extended discussions, the exchange
of views was so lively and stimulating that we immediately agreed to proceed one step
further by preparing for publication revised and extended versions of the contributions
of the invited speakers. It took a year to materialize our plans. The end result of this
process is now in your hands.
vi Introduction
The prospective reader will probably wonder why the volume coverage is restricted
to vertebrates. There are at least two reasons for this limitation. First, the very same
month we were due to meet at Syracuse, another symposium was to be held at Nairobi
on insect diversity in the tropics (Mound, 1987), and it was felt that any duplication of
efforts should be avoided. The second, and more important, reason for restricting our
subject matter to vertebrates was that the ecology of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds,
and mamiIlals is often known in much greater detail than that of the hundreds of
thousands of species of invertebrates. Furthermore, the five major vertebrate classes
also differ greatly enough in their type of habitat, physiology, behavior (particularly
mobility), and life histories to offer as many opportunities as arthropods for testing the
theoretical models of community structure presently in fashion.
Why also limit the discussion to coral reefs and rainforests? First of all, in spite of the
obvious differences between aquatic and terrestrial environments, the two ecosystems
selected have much in common. Both are reputed to be "aseasonal;' or at least submitted
to far less drastic seasonal changes of climate than tropical rivers or tropical savannas.
This allows the effects of biotic interactions taking place between ecosystem compo
nents and community members to be studied more easily. Coral reefs and rainforests
share also the distinctive characteristic of being, so to speak, "living landscapes" with
very complex architectures essentially made up of modular living organisms (trees
and scleractinian corals). Such tridimensional mosaics of habitats provide their host
species with a very broad range of living conditions equaled nowhere else. We did not
attempt to cover once more the ecology of tropical freshwater fish communities, as this
has been most ably done recently by lowe-McConnell (1987), to whom the reader is
referred for comparison with coral reefs.
The book therefore includes seven chapters. The first two deal with the structure of
coral fish communities, with a definite emphasis on the Indo-Pacific.
Next comes a well-documented contribution on amphibian and reptile rainforest
communities, with particular reference to those of the neotropics - the area where
the species diversity of "herptiles" is indeed the highest. This chapter makes a logical
transition to the following three, which deal with terrestrial communities of endo
thermic vertebrates.
The two following chapters deal with the bird communities of tropical rainforests,
with examples drawn from three continents. They demonstrate beautifully the speci
ficity of the order, which makes it difficult to envisage general explanations for diver
sity that apply to all vertebrates. Obviously, the models generated on evidence from
bird communities do not necessarily apply to fish, amphibian, and even reptile spe
cies assemblages.
The ornithologists' contributions are followed by a short chapter on rainforest mam
mal communities. Unfortunately, the structure of the mammal species assemblage as
a whole has never been studied comprehensively at any tropical site. Only some of its
subsets (primary consumers, primates, bats, and some rodents) have sometimes been
adequately investigated in this perspective.
Finally, the editors have attempted to "wrap up" together some of their thoughts on
the similarities and differences between coral reef and rainforest communities on the
one hand, and on how to relate vertebrate diversity to patterns and processes in the
lower trophic levels of the ecosystems on the other.
Introduction Vll
Let's hope that the data presented, and the hypotheses put forward, will stimulate
further investigations on this central problem of tropical ecology.
The Editors
References
lowe-McConnell, R.H. 1987. Ecological Studies in Tropical Fish Communities, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Mound, L.A. (ed.) 1987. Insect diversity in the tropics: A symposium. BioI. 1. Linn Soc. 30,
289-356
Contents
Introduction v
Contributors xi
1. Diversity of the Tropics: Causes of High Diversity in Reef Fish Systems 1
PETER F. SALE
2. Reef Fish Community Stmcture: An Indo-Pacific Comparison 21
MIREILLE L. HARMELIN-VIVIEN
3. Tropical Herpetofaunal Communities: Patterns of Community
Stmcture in Neotropical Rainforests 61
WILLIAM E. DUELLMAN
4. Bird Community Stmcture in Two Rainforests:
Africa (Gabon) and South America (French Guiana)-
A Comparison 89
CHRISTIAN ERARD
5. Bird Species Diversity of Lowland Tropical Rainforests
of New Guinea and Northern Australia 123
PETER V. DRISCOLL and JIRO KIKKAWA
x Contents
6. Mammalian Species Richness in Tropical Rainforests 153
FRANC;:OIS BOURLIERE
7. Species Diversity in Tropical Vertebrates: An Ecosystem Perspective 170
FRANC;:OIS BOURLIERE and MIREILLE L. HARMELIN-VIVIEN
Subject Index 185
Taxonomic Index 193
Contributors
BOURLIERE, FRAN<;OIS Departement de Physiologie, Universite Rene
Descartes, F-75007 Paris, France
DRISCOLL, PETER V. Department of Biology and Environmental
Science, Queensland Institute of Technology,
Brisbane, QLD 4001, Australia
DUELLMAN, WILLIAM E. Museum of Natural History and Department of
Systematics and Ecology, The University of
Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 60045-2454, USA
ERARD, CHRISTIAN Laboratoire de Zoologie (Mammiferes et
Oiseaux), Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle,
F-75005 Paris, France
HARMELIN-VIVIEN, MIREILLE L. Station Marine d'Endoume, Centre d'Oceanologie
de Marseille, F -13007 Marseille, France
KIKKAWA, JIRO Department of Zoology, University of Queens
land, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia
SALE, PETER F. Department of Zoology, University of New
Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
