13 Tropical Tidal Flat Benthos Compared
Between Australia and Central America
s. DITTMANN and J.A. VARGAS
13.1 Introduction
At all latitudes, tidal flats occur along the shorelines of the world's oceans,
covering areas up to thousands of square kilometers (Veenstra 1976;
Mathieson and Nienhuis 1991). These soft-sediment environments provide
habitat for a species-rich and abundant benthic fauna. As an ecotone between
the land and the sea, tidal flats often function as a turntable, both for certain
life stages of various organisms, as well as for energy and matter (Reise 1985;
Giitje and Reise 1998). From decades of intensive ecological studies, an understanding has grown of the processes that structure benthic communities in
temperate tidal flats (Wolff 1983; Reise 1985). Yet, how universal are these processes and do they playa comparable role in tidal flats in tropical environmental settings?
While several studies have compared differences in diversity and community composition of intertidal soft-bottom fauna between latitudes (Warwick and Rushwayuni 1987; Reise 1991; Vargas 1996), we set out here to compare tidal flat benthos within tropical latitudes, seeking generalities or singularities of the fauna and their ecological functions. Based on our respective
backgrounds, we derive our examples from tidal flats of tropical Australia and
the Pacific coast of Central America. If possible, information was compiled
from several tropical tidal flats in Australia and America, but a more detailed
analysis is restricted to studies from North Queensland, Costa Rica and El Salvador. These areas belong to different biogeographic regions and are presumably isolated from one another by the East Pacific Barrier (Veron 1995), as the
lack of islands sets an oceanic barrier for larval dispersal of nearshore benthic
animals. However, this barrier may not be as impenetrable as once believed
(Lessios et al. 1998).
To assess generalities versus singularities, we take some general paradigms
derived from ecological studies in temperate tidal flats or latitudinal comparisons (see e.g. Alongi 1989) and use them as hypotheses. We test whether
Ecological Studies, Vol. 151
K. Reise (ed.) Ecological Comparisons
of Sedimentary Shores
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001
Between Australia and Central America
s. DITTMANN and J.A. VARGAS
13.1 Introduction
At all latitudes, tidal flats occur along the shorelines of the world's oceans,
covering areas up to thousands of square kilometers (Veenstra 1976;
Mathieson and Nienhuis 1991). These soft-sediment environments provide
habitat for a species-rich and abundant benthic fauna. As an ecotone between
the land and the sea, tidal flats often function as a turntable, both for certain
life stages of various organisms, as well as for energy and matter (Reise 1985;
Giitje and Reise 1998). From decades of intensive ecological studies, an understanding has grown of the processes that structure benthic communities in
temperate tidal flats (Wolff 1983; Reise 1985). Yet, how universal are these processes and do they playa comparable role in tidal flats in tropical environmental settings?
While several studies have compared differences in diversity and community composition of intertidal soft-bottom fauna between latitudes (Warwick and Rushwayuni 1987; Reise 1991; Vargas 1996), we set out here to compare tidal flat benthos within tropical latitudes, seeking generalities or singularities of the fauna and their ecological functions. Based on our respective
backgrounds, we derive our examples from tidal flats of tropical Australia and
the Pacific coast of Central America. If possible, information was compiled
from several tropical tidal flats in Australia and America, but a more detailed
analysis is restricted to studies from North Queensland, Costa Rica and El Salvador. These areas belong to different biogeographic regions and are presumably isolated from one another by the East Pacific Barrier (Veron 1995), as the
lack of islands sets an oceanic barrier for larval dispersal of nearshore benthic
animals. However, this barrier may not be as impenetrable as once believed
(Lessios et al. 1998).
To assess generalities versus singularities, we take some general paradigms
derived from ecological studies in temperate tidal flats or latitudinal comparisons (see e.g. Alongi 1989) and use them as hypotheses. We test whether
Ecological Studies, Vol. 151
K. Reise (ed.) Ecological Comparisons
of Sedimentary Shores
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001