Quantifying structural redundancy in ecological communities |
| |
Authors: | K R Clarke R M Warwick |
| |
Institution: | (1) Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, West Hoe, Plymouth, PL1 3DH, UK Fax: +44 1752 633101, GB |
| |
Abstract: | In multivariate analyses of the effects of both natural and anthropogenic environmental variability on community composition,
many species are interchangeable in the way that they characterise the samples, giving rise to the concept of structural redundancy
in community composition. Here, we develop a method of quantifying the extent of this redundancy by extracting a series of
subsets of species, the multivariate response pattern of each of which closely matches that for the whole community. Structural
redundancy is then reflected in the number of such subsets, which we term “response units”, that can be extracted without
replacement. We have applied this technique to the effects of the Amoco-Cadiz oil-spill on marine macrobenthos in the Bay
of Morlaix, France, and to the natural interannual variability of macrobenthos at two stations off the coast of Northumberland,
England. Structural redundancy is shown to be remarkably high, with the number and sizes of subsets being comparable in all
three examples. Taxonomic/functional groupings of species within the differing response units change in abundance in the same
way over time. The response units are shown to possess a wide taxonomic spread and, using two different types of randomisation
test, demonstrated to have a taxonomically and functionally coherent structure. The level of structural redundancy may therefore
be an indirect measure of the resilience or compensation potential within an assemblage.
Received: 23 January 1996 / Accepted: 14 July 1997 |
| |
Keywords: | Multivariate analysis Marine macrobenthos Oil pollution Compensation potential Randomisation test |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|