2
K. Reise
convergent biotic traits among biogeographic provinces in response to physical forcing constitutes the necessary basis for general models. Conversely,
similar species with small differences in their life-history traits may ultimately lead to divergent flows of energy and matter in coastal ecosystems. In
such cases, a similar physical regime and environment may generate quite
different biotic effects. The global comparisons advocated here are required
to examine and apply the generalities which are claimed to date and to separate these from peculiarities and unique phenomena, some of which may in
themselves be noteworthy and deserve special appreciation.
Biotic assemblages of sedimentary shores are strongly dominated by a
small set of species. This may ease comparative analyses. However, the question remains: what is the ecological role (if any) of the remaining species?
Species richness recorded from intertidal surveys generally yield < 100 species
of benthic macrofauna in temperate zones and> 1 00 in the tropics, often two
to three times more than in temperate regions (i.e., Reise 1991; Pepping et al.
1999; Wijnsma et al. 1999). The biodiversity of the sedimentary shores of the
world in terms of forms of life, species, ecological assemblages and habitats
has never been compiled and brought into perspective.
Sedimentary shores may be evaluated across latitudes from the perspectives of migrant birds looking for food and roosting sites (Piersma et al. 1993).
Global patterns of zoomass in marine intertidal communities not only show
divergent trends of trophic groups (Ricciardi and Bourget 1999), but also
reveal that studies comparable in terms of methodology and scale are few, and
that the global distribution of such studies is very uneven. Blackburn and
Gaston (1998) raised a number of methodological issues that need to be taken
into account when individual data sets are assembled to detect trends over
large geographical distances. In this volume, primarily pairwise comparisons
are conducted with contrasting aspects between geographically distant
shores.
Roughly two-thirds of the world's coastline consists of sedimentary shores,
in long continuous stretches or in bays interspersed between rocky headlands (Fig. 1). Yet ecological perspectives and theory derived from sandy
beaches and mudflats have remained in the shadow of the ecology of rocky
shores. The reason is obvious. Most of the organisms of the rocky shore are
showy and conspicuous, and are readily accessible to non-destructive quantification and experimentation. Patterns of zonation have been compared
worldwide (Stephenson and Stephenson 1972) and the rocky shore served as
a model system for the development of community theory (Connell 1975;
Dayton 1975; Paine 1994).
Sedimentary shores, though an early focus of geologists (see Davis 1985),
are more resistant to progress in ecological research. Most organisms are
small, cryptic and difficult to extract from the sediment, and field experiments in this environment may suffer more than on rocky shores from
K. Reise
convergent biotic traits among biogeographic provinces in response to physical forcing constitutes the necessary basis for general models. Conversely,
similar species with small differences in their life-history traits may ultimately lead to divergent flows of energy and matter in coastal ecosystems. In
such cases, a similar physical regime and environment may generate quite
different biotic effects. The global comparisons advocated here are required
to examine and apply the generalities which are claimed to date and to separate these from peculiarities and unique phenomena, some of which may in
themselves be noteworthy and deserve special appreciation.
Biotic assemblages of sedimentary shores are strongly dominated by a
small set of species. This may ease comparative analyses. However, the question remains: what is the ecological role (if any) of the remaining species?
Species richness recorded from intertidal surveys generally yield < 100 species
of benthic macrofauna in temperate zones and> 1 00 in the tropics, often two
to three times more than in temperate regions (i.e., Reise 1991; Pepping et al.
1999; Wijnsma et al. 1999). The biodiversity of the sedimentary shores of the
world in terms of forms of life, species, ecological assemblages and habitats
has never been compiled and brought into perspective.
Sedimentary shores may be evaluated across latitudes from the perspectives of migrant birds looking for food and roosting sites (Piersma et al. 1993).
Global patterns of zoomass in marine intertidal communities not only show
divergent trends of trophic groups (Ricciardi and Bourget 1999), but also
reveal that studies comparable in terms of methodology and scale are few, and
that the global distribution of such studies is very uneven. Blackburn and
Gaston (1998) raised a number of methodological issues that need to be taken
into account when individual data sets are assembled to detect trends over
large geographical distances. In this volume, primarily pairwise comparisons
are conducted with contrasting aspects between geographically distant
shores.
Roughly two-thirds of the world's coastline consists of sedimentary shores,
in long continuous stretches or in bays interspersed between rocky headlands (Fig. 1). Yet ecological perspectives and theory derived from sandy
beaches and mudflats have remained in the shadow of the ecology of rocky
shores. The reason is obvious. Most of the organisms of the rocky shore are
showy and conspicuous, and are readily accessible to non-destructive quantification and experimentation. Patterns of zonation have been compared
worldwide (Stephenson and Stephenson 1972) and the rocky shore served as
a model system for the development of community theory (Connell 1975;
Dayton 1975; Paine 1994).
Sedimentary shores, though an early focus of geologists (see Davis 1985),
are more resistant to progress in ecological research. Most organisms are
small, cryptic and difficult to extract from the sediment, and field experiments in this environment may suffer more than on rocky shores from