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We conceived the idea for this book after teaching a graduate seminar on 'Habitat Complexity' at The University of South Florida. Discussions during the seminar led us to conclude that similar goals were to be found in studies of the topic that spanned the breadth of ecological research. Yet, the exact meaning of 'habitat structure', and the way in which it was measured, seemed to differ widely among subdisciplines. Our own research, which involves several sorts of ecology, convinced us that the differences among subdisciplines were indeed real ones, and that they did inhibit communica tion. We decided that interchange of ideas among researchers working in marine ecology, plant-animal interactions, physiological ecology, and other more-or-less independent fields would be worthwhile, in that it might lead to useful generalizations about 'habitat structure'. To foster this interchange of ideas. we organized a symposium to attract researchers working with a wide variety of organisms living in many habitats, but united in their interest in the topic of 'habitat structure'. The symposium was held at The University of South Florida's Chinsegut Hill Conference Center, in May. 1988. We asked participants to think about 'habitat structure' in new ways; to synthesize important, but fragmented, information; and. perhaps. to consider ways of translating ideas across systems. The chapters contained in this book reflect the participants' attempts to do so. The book is divided into four parts, by major themes that we have found useful categorizations.
List of contents
One Patterns.- 1 Habitat structure: the evolution and diversification of a complex topic.- 2 Development of habitat structure through succession in an Amazonian floodplain forest.- 3 Habitat diversity and the species-area relationship: alternative models and tests.- 4 Fractal geometry of ecological habitats.- 5 The effect of habitat structure on the spatial distribution of freshwater invertebrate populations.- Two Responses: colonization, succession, resource use.- 6 Habitat structure and morphological patterns in arboreal vertebrates.- 7 Microtopography as habitat structure for mosses on rocks.- 8 The effects of changes in habitat structure during succession in terrestrial communities.- 9 Influence of patch size, vegetation texture, and host plant architecture on the diversity, abundance, and life history styles of sap-feeding herbivores.- 10 Habitat structure and recruitment in coral reef fishes.- 11 Habitat structure and community dynamics in marine benthic systems.- Three Responses: predation, parasitism, disturbance.- 12 The influence of fire periodicity on habitat structure.- 13 A new look at habitat structure: consequences of herbivore-modified plant architecture.- 14 Habitat structure and predator-prey interactions in vegetated aquatic systems.- 15 The influence of habitat structure on the transmission of parasites.- 16 Habitat structure and spider foraging.- 17 The influence of habitat structure and environmental stability on the species diversity of polychaetes in vermetid reefs.- Four Applications.- 18 Habitat structure and the design of nature reserves.- 19 The ecology and structure of urban greenspaces.- 20 Habitat structure and the design of artificial reefs.- 21 Habitat structure: synthesis and perspectives.- Species index.
