- Email: [email protected]
Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, Volume 39
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 267 (2002) 245 – 249 www.elsevier.com/locate/jembe
Book review Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, Volume 39 R.N. Gibson, M. Barnes and R.J.A. Atkinson (eds.), Taylor and Francis (2001), ISBN 0415-23874-9 (hbk) This volume contains eight chapters, covering a disparate range of topics, only six of which are reviewed here. 1. Molluscs as archives of environmental change — C.A. Richardson The focus of this review is on analysis of shells as a record of ontogenetic changes and their use as a palaeo-ecological record of environmental change. Molluscs are ideal subjects for experimentation and have contributed enormously to our understanding of the dynamics of marine communities. The interpretation of structural elements contained in shells adds greatly to the repertoire of approaches which can be used to understand interactions between molluscs and their environment. The extensive account of the processes which form growth lines and bands in bivalve shells provides an excellent bibliography. There is a brief consideration of how to distinguish between seasonal growth patterns and those caused by disturbances, but more detailed information here with some diagrams would have been helpful. Discussion of various assumptions (e.g. constant mortality among years) associated with constructing frequency histograms from age distributions in samples would also have been useful. Reliable estimates of mortality are often hard to obtain, potentially reducing the usefulness of such analyses. The occasional photomicrograph did not reproduce well, making it difficult to discern some specific patterns (e.g. Fig. 7B), although most were good. The section on analysis of statoliths from cephalopods would have benefited from inclusion of photomicrographs, especially to illustrate the different growth zones in squid and the nature of the daily increments in different zones. I found the most interesting section to be the detailed coverage of the analysis of stable isotope and trace element concentrations incorporated into shell material as an indicator of the environmental conditions during life. These approaches have been used to validate the periodicity of growth lines in bivalves, allowing detailed analysis of the age composition of populations where other methods of validation would not be possible. The same approach has also yielded important information on historical patterns of temperature, with implications for the reconstruction of long-term global temperature profiles. Carbon isotopic signatures have been linked to periods of upwelling and the depth of thermocline, providing an opportunity for examination of historical patterns of ENSO events. This section lacked, however, a discussion of the type of equipment and technology needed to 0022-0981/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 2 2 - 0 9 8 1 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 3 7 3 - 2
246
Book review
process the samples: access to high-end machinery may be limited by declining institutional and research budgets restricting the usefulness of these approaches for many of us. Some consideration of the variability in results from individual shells and hence the need to process multiple samples, would also have been beneficial given the likely logistical constraints associated with processing each shell. 2. Measure of marine biodiversity — R.M. Warwick and K.R. Clarke Warwick and Clarke have continued their significant contributions to the science of environmental monitoring and analysis in marine systems (how many of us now use the PRIMER package to analyse and interpret community data and refer to their many papers as examples for specific procedures?) in this review of measures of taxonomic distinctness as a means of comparing biodiversity among different regions or in environmental impact assessment. An appealing feature of papers by these authors is their pragmatic approach to the difficulties inherent in much marine work arising from the lack of detailed taxonomic information. This pragmatism is seen here in the application of the Linnean classification scheme for categorization of taxonomic distinctiveness and distinctness in the absence of detailed molecular-derived cladograms. These could potentially be used on datasets where fauna have not been identified to species, allowing comparisons of biodiversity at higher taxonomic levels. The inclusion of the equations describing the derivation of AvTD and VarTD was initially daunting (although others who are more mathematically literate would probably be at ease), but as we have seen in their other papers, the explanations are clear and well supported by empirical examples and appropriate figures. The groundfish example provides a detailed explanation of the application and value of these methods. Most readers will come away with good understanding of the principles behind the approach, even if they are not sure about the specific calculations. The implementation of these measures into the recent release of PRIMER version 5 provides an opportunity to apply these methods easily on one’s own datasets. Calculating measures of taxonomic distinctness is inherently appealing, especially in the situation where reference (control) sites vary from the putatively impacted site in any number of environmental and habitat-related variables, e.g. sediment characteristics. Measures of taxonomic distinctness are also independent of sample size, allowing comparisons of biodiversity to be made among studies using different methods and done at different times, raising the prospect of revisiting those old datasets to investigate new questions. This review will serve to raise awareness of this ‘new’ suite of tools to a broad range of ecologists who might not read the more specialised marine journals where many of the empirical studies have been published. Analysis of taxonomic distinctness is sure to become widely used in marine ecological forams, thanks to the ability of Warwick and Clarke to present complicated new procedures in an accessible manner. 3. Functional group ecology in soft-sediment marine benthos — T.H. Pearson The fauna living in sands and muds display a great diversity of habits, especially in relation to feeding, yet, at some level, it is possible to group them into discrete categories.
Book review
247
This review provides an excellent summary of the various ways in which benthic fauna have been ordered into different functional groups and, as such, will serve as an important introduction to this general area. I enjoyed reading this account because it reminded me that ecology is about a search for generality and it is often the case that the failure of one set of generalisations leads to exciting new developments in research. For example, the failure of early functional group analyses prompted greater attention to the importance of small-scale hydrodynamic effects on larval processes (Butman, 1987). The main thrust of the review is that analyses based on functional groupings are a useful adjunct to more traditional approaches (such as the analysis of individual populations). The detailed account of results from Bonsdorff and Pearson (1999) support this, but this broad thesis would have been helped by the inclusion of other examples, highlighting less well-understood insights gained from a functional group approach. There were some surprising omissions from the literature, including Woodin’s (1976) paper on adult – larval interactions and Brenchley’s (1981) consideration of motility as a basis for understanding adult interactions. Throughout the review, the critical caveat that valid functional groupings must be based on detailed information on the basic biology and life history of the species is clearly evident and this may be discouraging to those of us in countries where the lack of detailed knowledge of the fauna is the norm. This review does, however, provide a starting point for developing a database of likely functional traits for local fauna, based on phylogenetic and/or taxonomic similarity to species where more detailed information is available. The contributions to benthic ecology made by Fauchald and Jumars (1979) review of polychaete feeding continue today, by virtue of the insights provided on characteristics examined at the family level. Pearson’s review provides an opening into the literature from which other comparisons could be developed.
4. Seagrass as a habitat for fisheries species — Jackson et al. This review examines the role of seagrass beds as a habitat for fishery species and does a thorough job of summarising the key information in the literature, although the section comparing the relative value to fishery species of seagrass with other habitats, made little or no mention of intertidal saltmarsh and mangrove vegetation, both of which are considered to play an important role as fisheries habitat (e.g. Robertson and Duke, 1987; Laegdsgaard and Johnson, 1995, among others). There were some errors in the citations. For example, information on the preferential settlement in seagrass beds of Mytilus edulis and Argopecten irradians was attributed to Connolly (1994), but this paper does not deal with these bivalves. Orth et al. (1984) does not describe experimental work on Zostera muelleri beds from South Australia, although their Table 1 does include reference to Poore’s (1982) study which had information on Z. muelleri in Victoria. I was disappointed that the authors did not take the opportunity to identify more key issues for future research, especially in some of the emerging areas, such as the application of landscape ecological concepts to estuarine habitats. The findings by people such as Irlandi and her colleagues are discussed, but the broader implications of
248
Book review
this work in relation to fragmentation and patch dynamics theory (e.g. Robbins and Bell, 1994) were not developed. There is clearly a need for studies, such as that described in Bowden et al. (2001), involving two of the authors of this review, but applied to fishery species (but see Connolly et al., 1999). This chapter will be of most value to postgraduates beginning their forays into the world of seagrass-fishery ecology, although they will need to read the primary source material to identify new and novel areas to focus their efforts. 5. Selective tidal stream transport of marine animals — R.B. Forward and R.A. Tankersley Anyone interested in the patterns and processes underlying larval advection and transport into different habitats should read this detailed account of the way in which animals are able to make use of tidal currents to maintain their position within a specific area or to transport themselves to new areas. The sometimes complex behaviours and links to the underlying hydrodynamics are explained with great clarity and supported with numerous examples from the literature. The implications for STST with respect to recovery and recolonisation in estuaries after large-scale disturbances are obvious and the information in the review draws attention to the need for more focussed studies on a broader range of species in different parts of the world. The section on the difficulties associated with detection of STST behaviours, especially in relation to application of appropriate statistical models provides a salutary lesson for those planning work in this area. I would imagine that many new postgraduate research programmes will develop after a careful consideration of the questions which come to mind after reading this paper. It also provides an extremely enjoyable read for those of us who sometimes get distracted from the opportunity to consider the complexity and diversity of animal behaviours which exist in the aquatic world. 6. Damselfishes and benthic communities on coral reefs — Ceccarelli et al. This review provides new insights into the role and relative importance of herbivorous damselfishes on coral reefs, partly due to the way the authors have compiled available information from the literature to investigate specific questions and explore generalisations, but also the inclusion of new data to illustrate specific points. Further, the authors do more than simply summarise the available information. They provide new interpretations based on the comparisons of multiple studies and evaluate the quality of the evidence contained in papers to determine the weight that evidence should carry. I consider these to all be hallmarks of a superlative review. The general discussion raises a plethora of questions which need to be addressed before broad generalisations about damselfishes can be reached, setting the scene for research in this area into the future, another sign of a good review. The specificity of the topic may limit the scope of interest in this material, but this work will (or should be) extremely well cited by coral reef fish ecologists and perhaps those generally interested in herbivore –plant interactions on coral reefs.
Book review
249
References Bonsdorff, E., Pearson, T.H., 1999. Variation in the sublittoral macrozoobenthos of the Baltic Sea along environmental gradients: a functional-group approach. Aust. J. Ecol. 24, 312 – 326. Bowden, D.A., Rowden, A.A., Attrill, M.J., 2001. Effect of patch size and in-patch location on the infaunal macroinvertebrate assemblages of Zostera marina seagrass beds. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 259, 133 – 154. Brenchley, G.A., 1981. Disturbance and community structure: an experimental study of bioturbation in marine soft-bottom communities. J. Mar. Res. 39, 767 – 790. Butman, C.A., 1987. Larval settlement of soft-sediment invertebrates: the spatial scales of pattern explained by active habitat selection and the emerging role of hydrodynamic processes. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol., Annu. Rev. 25, 113 – 165. Connolly, R.M., 1994. Removal of seagrass canopy: effects on small fish and their prey. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 184, 99 – 110. Connolly, R., Jenkins, G., Loneragan, N., 1999. Seagrass dynamics and fisheries sustainability. In: Butler, A., Jernakoff, J., Seagrass, P. (Eds.), Australia: Strategic Review and Development of an R&D Plan. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, pp. 25 – 64. Fauchald, K., Jumars, P.A., 1979. The diet of worms: A study of polychaete feeding guilds. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. Annu. Rev. 17, 193 – 284. Laegdsgaard, P., Johnson, C.R., 1995. Mangrove habitats as nurseries: unique assemblages of juvenile fish in subtropical mangroves in eastern Australia. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 126, 67 – 81. Orth, R.J., Heck, K.L., van Montfrans, J.V., 1984. Faunal communities in seagrass beds: a review of the influence of plant structure and prey characteristics on predator – prey relationships. Estuaries 7, 339 – 350. Poore, G.C.B., 1982. Benthic communities of the Gippsland Lakes, Victoria. Aust. J. Mar. Freshwater Res. 33, 901 – 915. Robbins, B.D., Bell, S.S., 1994. Seagrass landscapes: a terrestrial approach to the marine subtidal environment. Tree 9, 301 – 304. Robertson, A.I., Duke, N.C., 1987. Mangroves as nursery sites: comparisons of the abundance and species composition of fish and crustaceans in mangroves and other nearshore habitats in tropical Australia. Mar. Biol. 96, 193 – 206. Woodin, S.A., 1976. Adult – larval interactions in dense infaunal assemblages: patterns of abundance. J. Mar. Res. 34, 25 – 41.
Greg A. Skilleter Marine and Estuarine Ecology Unit (MEEU), Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia E-mail address: [email protected] Tel.: +61-7-3365-4819; fax: +61-7-3365-1655
Book review Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review, Volume 39 R.N. Gibson, M. Barnes and R.J.A. Atkinson (eds.), Taylor and Francis (2001), ISBN 0415-23874-9 (hbk) This volume contains eight chapters, covering a disparate range of topics, only six of which are reviewed here. 1. Molluscs as archives of environmental change — C.A. Richardson The focus of this review is on analysis of shells as a record of ontogenetic changes and their use as a palaeo-ecological record of environmental change. Molluscs are ideal subjects for experimentation and have contributed enormously to our understanding of the dynamics of marine communities. The interpretation of structural elements contained in shells adds greatly to the repertoire of approaches which can be used to understand interactions between molluscs and their environment. The extensive account of the processes which form growth lines and bands in bivalve shells provides an excellent bibliography. There is a brief consideration of how to distinguish between seasonal growth patterns and those caused by disturbances, but more detailed information here with some diagrams would have been helpful. Discussion of various assumptions (e.g. constant mortality among years) associated with constructing frequency histograms from age distributions in samples would also have been useful. Reliable estimates of mortality are often hard to obtain, potentially reducing the usefulness of such analyses. The occasional photomicrograph did not reproduce well, making it difficult to discern some specific patterns (e.g. Fig. 7B), although most were good. The section on analysis of statoliths from cephalopods would have benefited from inclusion of photomicrographs, especially to illustrate the different growth zones in squid and the nature of the daily increments in different zones. I found the most interesting section to be the detailed coverage of the analysis of stable isotope and trace element concentrations incorporated into shell material as an indicator of the environmental conditions during life. These approaches have been used to validate the periodicity of growth lines in bivalves, allowing detailed analysis of the age composition of populations where other methods of validation would not be possible. The same approach has also yielded important information on historical patterns of temperature, with implications for the reconstruction of long-term global temperature profiles. Carbon isotopic signatures have been linked to periods of upwelling and the depth of thermocline, providing an opportunity for examination of historical patterns of ENSO events. This section lacked, however, a discussion of the type of equipment and technology needed to 0022-0981/02/$ - see front matter D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 0 2 2 - 0 9 8 1 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 3 7 3 - 2
246
Book review
process the samples: access to high-end machinery may be limited by declining institutional and research budgets restricting the usefulness of these approaches for many of us. Some consideration of the variability in results from individual shells and hence the need to process multiple samples, would also have been beneficial given the likely logistical constraints associated with processing each shell. 2. Measure of marine biodiversity — R.M. Warwick and K.R. Clarke Warwick and Clarke have continued their significant contributions to the science of environmental monitoring and analysis in marine systems (how many of us now use the PRIMER package to analyse and interpret community data and refer to their many papers as examples for specific procedures?) in this review of measures of taxonomic distinctness as a means of comparing biodiversity among different regions or in environmental impact assessment. An appealing feature of papers by these authors is their pragmatic approach to the difficulties inherent in much marine work arising from the lack of detailed taxonomic information. This pragmatism is seen here in the application of the Linnean classification scheme for categorization of taxonomic distinctiveness and distinctness in the absence of detailed molecular-derived cladograms. These could potentially be used on datasets where fauna have not been identified to species, allowing comparisons of biodiversity at higher taxonomic levels. The inclusion of the equations describing the derivation of AvTD and VarTD was initially daunting (although others who are more mathematically literate would probably be at ease), but as we have seen in their other papers, the explanations are clear and well supported by empirical examples and appropriate figures. The groundfish example provides a detailed explanation of the application and value of these methods. Most readers will come away with good understanding of the principles behind the approach, even if they are not sure about the specific calculations. The implementation of these measures into the recent release of PRIMER version 5 provides an opportunity to apply these methods easily on one’s own datasets. Calculating measures of taxonomic distinctness is inherently appealing, especially in the situation where reference (control) sites vary from the putatively impacted site in any number of environmental and habitat-related variables, e.g. sediment characteristics. Measures of taxonomic distinctness are also independent of sample size, allowing comparisons of biodiversity to be made among studies using different methods and done at different times, raising the prospect of revisiting those old datasets to investigate new questions. This review will serve to raise awareness of this ‘new’ suite of tools to a broad range of ecologists who might not read the more specialised marine journals where many of the empirical studies have been published. Analysis of taxonomic distinctness is sure to become widely used in marine ecological forams, thanks to the ability of Warwick and Clarke to present complicated new procedures in an accessible manner. 3. Functional group ecology in soft-sediment marine benthos — T.H. Pearson The fauna living in sands and muds display a great diversity of habits, especially in relation to feeding, yet, at some level, it is possible to group them into discrete categories.
Book review
247
This review provides an excellent summary of the various ways in which benthic fauna have been ordered into different functional groups and, as such, will serve as an important introduction to this general area. I enjoyed reading this account because it reminded me that ecology is about a search for generality and it is often the case that the failure of one set of generalisations leads to exciting new developments in research. For example, the failure of early functional group analyses prompted greater attention to the importance of small-scale hydrodynamic effects on larval processes (Butman, 1987). The main thrust of the review is that analyses based on functional groupings are a useful adjunct to more traditional approaches (such as the analysis of individual populations). The detailed account of results from Bonsdorff and Pearson (1999) support this, but this broad thesis would have been helped by the inclusion of other examples, highlighting less well-understood insights gained from a functional group approach. There were some surprising omissions from the literature, including Woodin’s (1976) paper on adult – larval interactions and Brenchley’s (1981) consideration of motility as a basis for understanding adult interactions. Throughout the review, the critical caveat that valid functional groupings must be based on detailed information on the basic biology and life history of the species is clearly evident and this may be discouraging to those of us in countries where the lack of detailed knowledge of the fauna is the norm. This review does, however, provide a starting point for developing a database of likely functional traits for local fauna, based on phylogenetic and/or taxonomic similarity to species where more detailed information is available. The contributions to benthic ecology made by Fauchald and Jumars (1979) review of polychaete feeding continue today, by virtue of the insights provided on characteristics examined at the family level. Pearson’s review provides an opening into the literature from which other comparisons could be developed.
4. Seagrass as a habitat for fisheries species — Jackson et al. This review examines the role of seagrass beds as a habitat for fishery species and does a thorough job of summarising the key information in the literature, although the section comparing the relative value to fishery species of seagrass with other habitats, made little or no mention of intertidal saltmarsh and mangrove vegetation, both of which are considered to play an important role as fisheries habitat (e.g. Robertson and Duke, 1987; Laegdsgaard and Johnson, 1995, among others). There were some errors in the citations. For example, information on the preferential settlement in seagrass beds of Mytilus edulis and Argopecten irradians was attributed to Connolly (1994), but this paper does not deal with these bivalves. Orth et al. (1984) does not describe experimental work on Zostera muelleri beds from South Australia, although their Table 1 does include reference to Poore’s (1982) study which had information on Z. muelleri in Victoria. I was disappointed that the authors did not take the opportunity to identify more key issues for future research, especially in some of the emerging areas, such as the application of landscape ecological concepts to estuarine habitats. The findings by people such as Irlandi and her colleagues are discussed, but the broader implications of
248
Book review
this work in relation to fragmentation and patch dynamics theory (e.g. Robbins and Bell, 1994) were not developed. There is clearly a need for studies, such as that described in Bowden et al. (2001), involving two of the authors of this review, but applied to fishery species (but see Connolly et al., 1999). This chapter will be of most value to postgraduates beginning their forays into the world of seagrass-fishery ecology, although they will need to read the primary source material to identify new and novel areas to focus their efforts. 5. Selective tidal stream transport of marine animals — R.B. Forward and R.A. Tankersley Anyone interested in the patterns and processes underlying larval advection and transport into different habitats should read this detailed account of the way in which animals are able to make use of tidal currents to maintain their position within a specific area or to transport themselves to new areas. The sometimes complex behaviours and links to the underlying hydrodynamics are explained with great clarity and supported with numerous examples from the literature. The implications for STST with respect to recovery and recolonisation in estuaries after large-scale disturbances are obvious and the information in the review draws attention to the need for more focussed studies on a broader range of species in different parts of the world. The section on the difficulties associated with detection of STST behaviours, especially in relation to application of appropriate statistical models provides a salutary lesson for those planning work in this area. I would imagine that many new postgraduate research programmes will develop after a careful consideration of the questions which come to mind after reading this paper. It also provides an extremely enjoyable read for those of us who sometimes get distracted from the opportunity to consider the complexity and diversity of animal behaviours which exist in the aquatic world. 6. Damselfishes and benthic communities on coral reefs — Ceccarelli et al. This review provides new insights into the role and relative importance of herbivorous damselfishes on coral reefs, partly due to the way the authors have compiled available information from the literature to investigate specific questions and explore generalisations, but also the inclusion of new data to illustrate specific points. Further, the authors do more than simply summarise the available information. They provide new interpretations based on the comparisons of multiple studies and evaluate the quality of the evidence contained in papers to determine the weight that evidence should carry. I consider these to all be hallmarks of a superlative review. The general discussion raises a plethora of questions which need to be addressed before broad generalisations about damselfishes can be reached, setting the scene for research in this area into the future, another sign of a good review. The specificity of the topic may limit the scope of interest in this material, but this work will (or should be) extremely well cited by coral reef fish ecologists and perhaps those generally interested in herbivore –plant interactions on coral reefs.
Book review
249
References Bonsdorff, E., Pearson, T.H., 1999. Variation in the sublittoral macrozoobenthos of the Baltic Sea along environmental gradients: a functional-group approach. Aust. J. Ecol. 24, 312 – 326. Bowden, D.A., Rowden, A.A., Attrill, M.J., 2001. Effect of patch size and in-patch location on the infaunal macroinvertebrate assemblages of Zostera marina seagrass beds. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 259, 133 – 154. Brenchley, G.A., 1981. Disturbance and community structure: an experimental study of bioturbation in marine soft-bottom communities. J. Mar. Res. 39, 767 – 790. Butman, C.A., 1987. Larval settlement of soft-sediment invertebrates: the spatial scales of pattern explained by active habitat selection and the emerging role of hydrodynamic processes. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol., Annu. Rev. 25, 113 – 165. Connolly, R.M., 1994. Removal of seagrass canopy: effects on small fish and their prey. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 184, 99 – 110. Connolly, R., Jenkins, G., Loneragan, N., 1999. Seagrass dynamics and fisheries sustainability. In: Butler, A., Jernakoff, J., Seagrass, P. (Eds.), Australia: Strategic Review and Development of an R&D Plan. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, pp. 25 – 64. Fauchald, K., Jumars, P.A., 1979. The diet of worms: A study of polychaete feeding guilds. Oceanogr. Mar. Biol. Annu. Rev. 17, 193 – 284. Laegdsgaard, P., Johnson, C.R., 1995. Mangrove habitats as nurseries: unique assemblages of juvenile fish in subtropical mangroves in eastern Australia. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 126, 67 – 81. Orth, R.J., Heck, K.L., van Montfrans, J.V., 1984. Faunal communities in seagrass beds: a review of the influence of plant structure and prey characteristics on predator – prey relationships. Estuaries 7, 339 – 350. Poore, G.C.B., 1982. Benthic communities of the Gippsland Lakes, Victoria. Aust. J. Mar. Freshwater Res. 33, 901 – 915. Robbins, B.D., Bell, S.S., 1994. Seagrass landscapes: a terrestrial approach to the marine subtidal environment. Tree 9, 301 – 304. Robertson, A.I., Duke, N.C., 1987. Mangroves as nursery sites: comparisons of the abundance and species composition of fish and crustaceans in mangroves and other nearshore habitats in tropical Australia. Mar. Biol. 96, 193 – 206. Woodin, S.A., 1976. Adult – larval interactions in dense infaunal assemblages: patterns of abundance. J. Mar. Res. 34, 25 – 41.
Greg A. Skilleter Marine and Estuarine Ecology Unit (MEEU), Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia E-mail address: [email protected] Tel.: +61-7-3365-4819; fax: +61-7-3365-1655