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Trophic Structure Determination and Equilibrium in an Arthropod Community
Author(s) -
Simberloff Daniel
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.2307/1934831
Subject(s) - trophic level , ecology , arthropod , biological dispersal , community structure , biology , population , demography , sociology
Heatwole and Levins (1972) contend that the island recolonization experiment of Simberloff and Wilson (1969) demonstrates a community trophic structure equilibrium determined by species interactions. Data do not support this contention. Heatwole and Levins may have overstated the determinateness and importance of trophic structure for two reasons: (1) they pooled data from separate islands, (2) the statistic with which they characterize trophic structure is strongly dependent on species number. That trophic interactions are important in this system remains unproven; on the other hand, such species characteristics as dispersal ability and microhabitat requirements may be critical to some dominant species.