Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information The Balance of Nature and Human Impact It is clear that nature is undergoing rapid changes as a result of human activities such as industry, agriculture, travel, fisheries and urbanization. What effects do these activities have? Are they disturbing equilibria in ecological populations and communities, thus upsetting the balance of nature, or are they enhancing naturally occurring disequilibria, perhaps with even worse consequences? It is often argued that large-scale fluctuations in climate and sea levels have occurred over and over again in the geological past, long before human activities could possibly have had any impact, and that human effects are very small compared to those that occur naturally. Should we conclude that human activity cannot significantly affect the environment, or are these naturally occurring fluctuations actually being dangerously enhanced by humans? This book examines these questions, first by providing evidence for equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions in relatively undisturbed ecosystems, and second by examining human-induced effects. Klaus Rohde is Professor Emeritus at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. He is well known for his work on the ecology, biogeography and ultrastructure of parasites, particularly marine parasites, and on latitudinal gradients in biodiversity. He has published extensively on parasite ecology, non-equilibrium ecology and marine parasitology. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by KLAUS ROHDE University of New England Armidale, Australia © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107019614 © Cambridge University Press 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The balance of nature and human impact / edited by Klaus Rohde, University of New England, Armidale, Australia. pages cm Includes index. ISBN 978-1-107-01961-4 1. Population biology. 2. Biotic communities. 3. Nature – Effect of human beings on. I. Rohde, Klaus, 1932– QH352.B34 2013 576.8–dc23 2012028838 ISBN 978-1-107-01961-4 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information Contents Foreword page ix List of contributors xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction 1 Klaus Rohde Part I Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Populations and Metapopulations 5 1 Reef fishes: density dependence and equilibrium in populations? 7 Graham E. Forrester and Mark A. Steele 2 Population dynamics of ectoparasites of terrestrial hosts 21 Boris R. Krasnov and Annapaola Rizzoli 3 Metapopulation dynamics in marine parasites 35 Ana Pérez-del-Olmo, Aneta Kostadinova and Serge Morand Part II Nonequilibrium and Equilibrium in Communities 49 4 The paradox of the plankton 51 Klaus Rohde 5 A burning issue: community stability and alternative stable states in relation to fire 63 Peter J. Clarke and Michael J. Lawes 6 Community stability and instability in ectoparasites of marine and freshwater fish 75 Andrea Šimková and Klaus Rohde 7 Ectoparasites of small mammals: interactive saturated and unsaturated communities 89 Boris R. Krasnov 8 A macroecological approach to the equilibrial vs. nonequilibrial debate using bird populations and communities 103 Brian McGill © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information vi Contents Part III Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium on Geographical Scales 119 9 Island flora and fauna: equilibrium and nonequilibrium 121 Lloyd W. Morrison 10 The dynamic past and future of arctic vascular plants: climate change, spatial variation and genetic diversity 133 Christian Brochmann, Mary E. Edwards and Inger G. Alsos Part IV Latitudinal Gradients 153 11 Latitudinal diversity gradients: equilibrium and nonequilibrium explanations 155 Klaus Rohde 12 Effective evolutionary time and the latitudinal diversity gradient 169 Len N. Gillman and Shane D. Wright Part V Effects Due to Invading Species, Habitat Loss and Climate Change 181 13 The physics of climate: equilibrium, disequilibrium and chaos 183 Michael Box 14 Episodic processes, invasion and faunal mosaics in evolutionary and ecological time 199 Eric P. Hoberg and Daniel R. Brooks 15 The emerging infectious diseases crisis and pathogen pollution 215 Daniel R. Brooks and Eric P. Hoberg 16 Establishment or vanishing: fate of an invasive species based on mathematical models 231 Yihong Du 17 Anthropogenic footprints on biodiversity 239 Camilo Mora and Fernando A. Zapata 18 Worldwide decline and extinction of amphibians 259 Harold Heatwole 19 Climatic change and reptiles 279 Harvey B. Lillywhite 20 Equilibrium and nonequilibrium in Australian bird communities – the impact of natural and anthropogenic effects 295 Hugh A. Ford 21 Population dynamics of insects: impacts of a changing climate 311 Nigel R. Andrew 22 The futures of coral reefs 325 Peter F. Sale © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information Contents vii Part VI Autecological Studies 335 23 Autecology and the balance of nature – ecological laws and human-induced invasions 337 G. H. Walter 24 The intricacy of structural and ecological adaptations: micromorphology and ecology of some Aspidogastrea 357 Klaus Rohde Part VII An Overall View 369 25 The importance of interspecific competition in regulating communities, equilibrium vs. nonequilibrium 371 Klaus Rohde 26 Evolutionarily stable strategies: how common are they? 385 Klaus Rohde 27 How to conserve biodiversity in a nonequilibrium world 393 Klaus Rohde, Hugh Ford, Nigel R. Andrew and Harold Heatwole Index 407 Color plates are to be found between pp. 48 and 49. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01961-4 - The Balance of Nature and Human Impact Edited by Klaus Rohde Frontmatter More information Foreword As a somewhat obsessive, but far from expert, sea kayaker, I attend to issues of stability a good deal. Kayakers distinguish two kinds. Primary or initial stability is a measure of how much a kayak rocks in the water when it is displaced from the level. Secondary or final stability is a measure of how readily a kayak capsizes. Beginners instinctively confuse the two. They are concerned that the rocking associated with the primary stability characteristics of a boat reflects its secondary stability, and in overreacting to the former they can overwhelm the latter, and get very wet as a consequence. With practice, one learns to improve the primary stability that is experienced under an increasingly wide variety of conditions of wind and wave, to reduce the likelihood of unintentionally exceeding a kayak’s secondary stability, and then to be able to use boats with inherently lower stability of both kinds. In a world in which the abundances and distributions of the majority of organisms are heavily influenced, and often continually buffeted, directly or indirectly by anthropogenic activities, we need to become the population manage- ment equivalent of more expert kayakers. This book provides one further step along that course. Historically, ecologists have spent a lot of time debating whether populations have the equivalent of primary stability (i.e. whether they have their dynamics in some way bounded), how it varies intraspecifically and interspecifically, and what that might mean in turn for the structure and composition of assemblages