Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vsgnj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T03:28:50.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Levels of Spatial Variability: The “Community” Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

D. A. Springer  and
A. I. Miller
D. A. Springer
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Earth Science, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA 17815
A. I. Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221
Get access

Extract

The way we view species distribution patterns, particularly at the level commonly referred to as the “community”, has changed over the past 70 years in biology and, subsequently, in paleontology. Because the degree to which species associations can be interpreted as ecological and evolutionary units depends ultimately on recognition and interpretation of faunal spatial variability, we need to understand the nature of this variability at all levels of resolution before we can adequately address questions of “community” structure and dynamics. While it is possible to recognize spatial variability at several levels, from the distributions of individuals within a species to the overall pattern created by the global biota, we must ask whether these patterns really comprise a hierarchy with natural discontinuities (Fig. 1), or whether it is more realistic to view them as a continuous variability spectrum.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 5: Paleocommunity Temporal Dynamics: The Long-Term Development of Multispecies Assemblies , 1990 , pp. 13 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ager, D. V. 1963. Principles of Paleoecology. New York, McGraw-Hill, 371 pp.Google Scholar
Beanland, F. L. 1940. Sand and mud communities in the Dovey Estuary. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 24:589–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boucot, A. J. 1953. Life and death assemblages among fossils. American Journal of Science, 251:25–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretsky, P. W. 1973. Comments on Why ‘communities’?. Geology, 1:59.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cisne, J. L. and Rabe, B. D., 1978. Coenocorrelation: gradient analysis of fossil communities and its applications in stratigraphy. Lethaia, 11:341–364.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, G. Y. 1953. Fossil communities and assemblages, American Journal of Science, 251:547–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, G. Y., and Hallam, A. 1963. Size-frequency and growth-ring analyses of Mytilus edulis and Cardium edule, and their paleoecological significance. Palaeontology, 6:731–750.Google Scholar
Elias, M. K. 1937. Depth of deposition of the Big Blue (Paleozoic) sediments of Kansas. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 48:403–432.Google Scholar
Fagerstrom, J. A. 1964. Fossil communities in paleoecology: their recognition and significance. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 75:1197–1216.Google Scholar
Feldman, H. R. 1985. Benthic faunal patchiness on soft substrates in modern and Paleozoic communities. Geological Society of America Bulletin, Abstracts with Programs, 17:580.Google Scholar
Feldman, H. R. 1988. Scales of patchiness in benthic marine faunas with an example from the Waldron Shale (Silurian, Indiana). Geological Society of America Bulletin, Abstracts with Programs, 20:255.Google Scholar
Ford, E. 1923. Animal communities of the level sea bottom in waters adjacent to Plymouth. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 13:164–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleason, H. A. 1926. The individualistic concept of plant association. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 53:7–26.Google Scholar
Hedgepeth, J. W. 1957. Concepts of marine ecology. In Hedgepeth, J. W. (ed.), Treatise on Marine ecology and Paleoecology. Part I.: Ecology. Geological Society of America Memoir 67:29–52.Google Scholar
Hoffman, A. 1979. Community paleoecology as an epiphenomenal science. Paleobiology, 5:357–379.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J., and Newell, N. D. (eds.) 1964. Approaches to Paleoecology. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 432 pp.Google Scholar
Johnson, R.G. 1964. The community approach to paleoecology. In Imbrie, J. and Newell, N.D. (eds.), Approaches to Paleoecology. New York, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., pp. 107–134.Google Scholar
Johnson, R.G. 1970. Variations in diversity within benthic marine communities. American Naturalist, 104:285–300.Google Scholar
Johnson, R.G. 1971. Animal-sediment relations in shallow water benthic communities. Marine Geology, 11:93–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, N. S. 1950. Marine bottom communities. Biological Reviews, 25:283–313.Google Scholar
Kauffman, E. G., and Scott, R. W. 1976. Basic concepts of community ecology and paleoecology. In Scott, R. W. and West, R.R. (eds.), Structure and Classification of Paleocommunities. Dowden, Hutchinson, and Ross, Stroudsburg, PA, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Kreisa, R. D. 1980. The Martinsburg Formation (Middle and Upper Ordovician) and related facies in southwestern Virginia. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 355 pp.Google Scholar
Kreisa, R. D. 1981. Storm-generated sedimentary structures in subtidal marine facies with examples from the Middle and Upper Ordovician of southwestern Virginia. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 51:823–848.Google Scholar
Kreisa, R. D., and Springer, D. A. 1987. Lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy of the Martinsburg Formation in southwestern Virginia, with descriptive sections. Virginia Division of Mineral Resources Publication 74, Contributions to Virginia Geology, V:33–54.Google Scholar
Laporte, L. F. 1968. Ancient Environments. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., Prentice-Hall, 116 pp.Google Scholar
Lindroth, A. 1935. Die Assoziationen der Marinen Weichboden. Zoologisk Bidrag Uppsala, 15:331.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. 1981. Gradients in nearshore marine mollusc assemblages, Smuggler's Cove, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. , Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA.Google Scholar
Miller, A. I. 1985. Spatial resolution in subfossil molluscan remains: implications for paleobiological analyses. Paleobiology, 14:91–103.Google Scholar
Molander, A. 1928. Animal communities on soft bottom areas in the Gullmar Fjord. Kristinebergs Zoological Station 1877–1927, no. 2:1–90.Google Scholar
Newell, N. D., Imbrie, J., Purdy, E. G., and Thurber, D. L. 1959. Organism communities and bottom facies, Great Bahama Bank. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 117:177–228.Google Scholar
Petersen, C. G. J. 1913. Valuation of the sea. II. The animal communities of the sea bottom and their importance for marine zoogeography. Report of the Danish Biological Station, v. 21, 44 pp.Google Scholar
Petersen, C. G. J. 1915. On the animal communities of the sea bottom in the Skagerrak, the Christiania Fjord and the Danish waters. Report of the Danish Biological Station, v. 25, 62 pp.Google Scholar
Petersen, C. G. J. 1924. A brief survey of the animal communities in Danish waters. American Journal of Science, 7: 343–354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, A. W. B. 1937. Animal communities of the sea bottom in Aukland and Manukau Harbours. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 66:354–401.Google Scholar
Sanders, H. L. and Hessler, R. R. 1969. Ecology of the deep-sea benthos. Science, 163:1419–1424.Google Scholar
Springer, D.A. 1982. Community gradients in the Martinsburg Formation (Ordovician), southwestern Virginia. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 288 pp.Google Scholar
Springer, D.A. 1985. Gradient versus cluster analysis of fossil assemblages: a comparison from the Ordovician of southwestern Virginia. Lethaia, 18:181–198.Google Scholar
Thorson, G. 1957. Bottom communities (shallow or sublittoral shelf). In Hedgepeth, J. W. (ed.), Treatise on Marine ecology and Paleoecology. Part I.: Ecology, Geological Society of America Memoir 67:461–534.Google Scholar
Watkins, R., Berry, W. B. N., and Boucot, A. J. 1973. Why ‘communities’?. Geology, 1:55–58.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. H. 1967. Gradient analysis of vegetation. Biological Reviews, 42:207–264.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. H. 1975. Communities and Ecosystems (2nd ed.). Macmillan Publ. Co., New York, New York, 385 pp.Google Scholar
Whittaker, R. H., and Niering, W. A. 1965. Vegetation of the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona. (II) A gradient analysis of the south slope. Ecology, 46:429–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziegler, A. M. 1965. Silurian marine communities and their environmental significance. Nature, 207: 270–272.Google Scholar