Swamp Communities Research Articles

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY OF A TROPICAL PALM SWAMP COMMUNITY IN THE VENEZUELAN LLANOS

The reproductive biology of a tropical palm swamp community, called morichal in the Venezuelan Central Llanos, was studied. Of the 128 woody and herbaceous species of plants recorded, 99 (77.34%) were hermaphrodites, 25 (19.53%) were monoecious, and four (3.13%) were dioecious. The morichal is characterized by a low number of species with obligate cross‐fertilization. The frequencies of species with different breeding systems in a subsample of 26 species showed that eight (30.77%) were self‐incompatible, 14 (53.85%) were self‐compatible, and four (15.38%) were agamospermous. Ten of 14 self‐compatible species were autogamous. Regardless of the self‐incompatibility level estimated, seed and fruit set were greater in self‐fertilized flowers than in hand‐pollinated flowers in three of the nine self‐incompatible species. These results are related to the facts that: 1) the relative isolation of the plant population limits the gene flow among similar communities and enforces the intrapopulation pollen flow; 2) the overlapping flowering patterns and infrequent and unspecialized pollinators may be enforcing self‐compatibility and agamospermy; 3) self‐compatibility is the rule among short‐lived species in the morichal; and 4) three out of four agamospermous species are of the Melastomataceae family.

DISTRIBUTION AND DIVERSITY OF MKUZE SWAMP FISHES DURING A SUMMER FLOOD

SUMMARY Very little information is available on the fishes of the Mkuze swamps and this paper presents the results of an ichthyofaunal survey conducted in March 1988. The study, which coincided with a major river flood, determined that the fish fauna was considerably more diverse than expected and 25 species were collected from 31 localities. Several distinct communities are recognized including a river channel/floodplain community, lagoonal community, feeder stream community and lower swamp community. The subtraction of tropical freshwater fish species in the region is documented and a complete checklist for the Mkuze River system, including several new records from this survey, is presented.

Preliminary observations on phytotaphonomic assemblages in a subtropical/temperate Holocene bayhead Delta: Mobile delta, Gulf Coastal Plain, Alabama

Studies conducted in the Holocene bayhead Mobile Delta, southeastern Gulf Coastal Plain, have begun to aid in elucidating the relationships between vegetational communities and macrodetrital litter recovered in various sedimentary environments. The bayhead delta is the result of the Mobile-Tensaw River progradation through a drowned Pleistocene river valley. Geomorphic sites sampled in the upper delta plain include channel forebank, levee, swamp, and abandoned channel (bayou). Channel forebanks are littered with parallel to subparallel oriented logs and branches, but subsurface accumulations of plant organs have not been identified, to date. Although levees are sites in which forest floor litter accumulates, bioturbation by rooting and fluctuating water conditions degrade plant parts. Alluvial and Deep Alluvial Swamps are sites in which prostrate logs and erect tree bases are more prone to being preserved by suspension load sedimentation. Forest floor litter beds of these swamps rarely may be preserved by event deposition (i.e. anomalous flooding). Recovered subsurface plant parts include fragmented woody detritus, bark, and seeds. The site most prone to preserving bedded leaf litter is the abandoned channel. Vegetation surrounding the bayou contributes canopy parts resulting in organic-rich muds. The lower delta plain is the area where passive and active sediment accumulation occurs in open water distributary bays and flanking subaerial levee/marshes. Marshes are inhabited by a herbaceous community in which rooting mats predominate the subsurface samples. Most aerial plant litters degrade or are consumed on the surface of the marsh. Root: shoot ratios have not been assessed, to date. Interdistributary bays infilled by passive sedimentation (flooding) preserve an extensively degraded assemblage of plant parts in a high-organic mud. Interdistributary bays infilled by active sedimentation (crevasse splay) preserve (1) bedded leaf litter horizons in distributary mouth bar sands and adjacent estuarine silty-muds and (2) transported detrital peats in shallows near crevasse channel distributary mouth bars. These litter horizons are composed of plant parts transported from distal Levee and Swamp communities of the transitional and upper delta. Proposed hypotheses to reconstruct plants (organic connection) through the repeated associations of parts found in clastic sedimentary environments must be reevaluated with respect to the taphonomic processes occurring in specific depositional environments.

Interpreting ancient swamp communities: Can we see the forest in the peat?

A comparison of the taxonomic composition of mangrove (salt-water) peats from the Everglades National Park and the swamp forests in which the peats accumulated shows that the rank abundance of roots belonging to a taxon in peat can be used to predict the rank abundance of that taxon in the swamp forest. Thus the rank abundance of taxa in permineralized peats can be used to reconstruct ancient swamp-forests. Factors that correlate with salinity, primarily the abundance of detritovores in mangrove swamps, appear to control the shoot-root ratios of the peats studied. Fresh-water swamps peats have few detritovores, low rates of decomposition, and relatively high shoot-root ratios (mean = 2.03).Mangrove peats have many detritovores, high rates of decomposition, and low shoot-root ratios (mean = 0.16). Variation in the shoot-root ratios of marsh peats do not correlate with salinity. However, shoot-root ratios may be useful in predicting the growth environment of ancient permineralized peats derived from ancient swamp forests. Paleotropical permineralized peats of Late Carboniferous age have extremely high shoot-root ratios. A model for peat accumulation based on the work of Janzen (1974) suggests that these high shoot-root ratios may be indicative of tropical blackwater swamps. Factors that are uncorrelated with salinity such as rainfall regime may determine the difference between Okefenokee shoot-root ratios (mean = 2.03) and extremely high shoot-root ratios (> 100) of paleotropical permineralized peats from putative blackwater swamps.

Confirmation of Carboniferous clastic swamp communities

Tropical lowlands dominated by arborescent lycophytes are the principal foci for our understanding of Carboniferous peat and non-peat accumulating coastal swamps1,2. Suggested palaeoeco-logical interpretations of various lycophytes and accessory vegetation have been based on transported compression assemblages3,4 and palynomorphs5,6, or in situ permineralized peats7. Where transported macrodetritus, resulting in compression assemblages, is used to reconstruct past vegetational patterns, taphonomic factors tend to bias the preserved flora8–11. Taken alone, or out of depositional context, the heterogeneity of an assemblage most probably bears little or no relationship to that of the original contributing communities. Gastaldo9 suggests that reconstructions should be based on the autecology of erect in situ plants because, with peats permineralized in situ, precise resolution in time of laterally equivalent vegetation is difficult. Here I document an erect in situ Early Pennsylvanian lycophyte swamp which provides the first confirmatory evidence for previously hypothetical ecological amplitudes.

Vegetation-Environment Relations in a Conifer Swamp in Central New York

PARATLEY, R. D. AND T. J. FAHEY (Dept. Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853). Vegetation-environment relations in a conifer swamp in central New York. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 113:357-371. 1986.-Direct and indirect gradient analysis techniques were employed to quantify the relationships between vegetation and environment in a valley-basin swamp forest in central New York State. It was hypothesized that soil drainage, as indicated by water table position, would be the most important environmental factor ordering vegetation in the swamp, with a secondary influence by site quality as influenced by spatial position with respect to surface and groundwater inflow. The direct gradient analysis, based upon weekly measurements of water table height, sorted the site into five drainage classes and clearly demonstrated the primary control on woody vegetation distribution. However, the indirect gradient analysis, based upon overstory and ground vegetation composition, was more successful in sorting the vegetation into meaningful communities. The overstory vegetation was divided into an upland community occurring on inceptisol, and three swamp communities on histosol (hemlock swamp, and white pine and larch phases of a mixed conifer-red maple swamp). The ground vegetation subdivided the mixed coniferred maple swamp into four communities named for indicator species. Environmental correlation suggested that these divisions were largely the result of site quality differences as influenced by proximity to mineral-rich inflow. The ground vegetation communities were more clearly separated in the ordination space than the overstory, and were more highly correlated with mean depth of water table, ash content and bulk density of peat. Thus, the gradient analyses supported the hypothesis of environmental control of vegetation distribution. Finally, the high species richness (272 vascular plants) resulted from high microsite heterogeneity, the complex hydrology of the basin, and the mixing of boreal relict vegetation with temperate swamp species typical of the region.

Entwicklung der Wasser- und Sumpfpflanzen-Gesellschaften Europas von der Kreide bis ins Quartär

The purpose of the present investigation is to elucidate the following facts and problems of Cenozoic Waterplant and Swamp Communities in Europe: 1. Aquatic Angiosperms of the Cretaceous. 2. Evidences of Aquatic Plant Families and the Development of the Water- and Swamp Vegetation in the Early and Younger Tertiary and the Quaternary — Differenciation of the European Floristic Regions — Endemism — Local Exotics. 3. Ecological Indicatorplants in fossil condition: thermic, nutriments, facies-indicators. 4. European fossil Communities of Water, Swamp and Bog Plants: Freshwater and Swamp Vegetation (Submersed Aquatic Plant Communities, Shallow-water Communities and Communities of Plants Floating on the Water Surface, Reed Marshes and Tall Sedge Swamps, Spring Communities, Herb-rich Fen Communities, Bog Communities) — Saltwater and Coastal Vegetation — Herbaceous Shore vegetation of Temporarely Impounded Wet Places.

Destruction of the <i>Phoenix/Hibiscus</i> and <i>Barringtonia racemosa</i> Communities at Richards Bay, Natal, South Africa

The destruction of the Phoenix!Hibiscus and Barringtonia racemosa Communities described by Venter in 1972 on the southern shores of Richards Bay is reported. The cause was the artificial openingof a new mouth about 5,5 km south of the original mouth, which increased tidal range and salinity. These swamp communities occupied a narrow band about 6 ha in area behind the Bruguiera gymnorrhiza Community. An estimated 95 % of the communities was affected and only on the landward border were some isolated remnants of species such as Acrostichum aureum, Hibiscus tiliaceus and Phoenix reclinata detected .Young stands of Phragmites australis, seedlings of Bruguiera gymnorrhiza and Avicennia marina and epipelic algae are recoIonizing the affected area.

Seasonal Variations in Water Chemistry and Diversity of the Phytophilic Macroinvertebrates of Three Swamp Communities in Southeastern Louisiana

The McElroy Swamp in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, consisted of variety of habitats, three of which were sampled. Each of the three stations was distinct from the others in terms of both physico-chemical features and faunal characteristics. Significantly different communities existed in spite of the close proximity of one station to another. The cooler, shaded, temporary waters of the mixed hardwoods swamp exhibited relatively stable chemical regime. The macroinvertebrates were those of pro- tected situations with minimal variations in water conditions. Hydrozoans, hemip- terans, coleopterans, chironomids and culicids characterized this habitat. The permanent waters of the cypress swamp were more exposed to sunlight. Oxygen saturation, carbon dioxide, and related factors were largely controlled by the dense aquatic plant community. Chemical characteristics of these waters were more variable than the mixed swamp. There was an abundance of some species of water mites, backswimmers, odonates, and the mosquito Culex. The dead cypress swamp was unprotected from sun and wind. A dense growth of aquatic vegetation offered an abundance of food and substrates for benthic invertebrates. However, variations in physico-chemical factors were extreme. Chironomid and naidid abundance was highly variable. Gastropods, caddisflies, mayflies, and dipterans, particularly biting midges, characterized this habitat. A swamp, as defined by Penfound (1952), is a woody com- munity occurring in an area where the soil is usually saturated or covered with surface water for one or more months of the growing season. Swamplands characterize low-lying areas and although they are extremely abundant, especially in the Gulf States, they have been almost completely neglected in terms of their limnology and aquatic invertebrate communities. KruIl and Hubert (1973) and Matta (1974) published reports on the invertebrate fauna of two swamp habitats. However, their reports contain little in-

Succession in deciduous swamp communities of southeastern Michigan formerly dominated by American elm

Fifty-six permanent sample plots were established in deciduous swamp communities of south-eastern Michigan where Ulmus americana was dominant before introduction of the Dutch elm disease. Plots were also established in old fields where elm seedlings were present. The purpose of the study was to determine the composition of the overstory, understory, and seedling layers in deciduous swamp forests and to provide a base line for determining the fate of young seedling and sapling elms, and the rate and nature of succession in the deciduous swamp communities. The major overstory species in the three swamps studied were Fraxinus nigra, Acer rubrum, and Betula alleghaniensis. These species were also dominant in the understory along with smaller numbers of Carpinus caroliniana, Ulmus americana, Tilia americana, and Fraxinus pennsylvanica. In the next generation the communities will be much as they are today. The overstory dominants are also strongly represented in the seedling layer. Ulmus americana was more abundant in this layer than in the understory. Therefore, Ulmus has not been eliminated from the deciduous swamps but makes up about 10 to 15% of the understory and seedling layers. Old fields and other open upland areas are much more important habitats for regeneration of Ulmus than swamp communities. Indications are that unlike Castanea dentata, Ulmus americana will be perpetuated for generations by seeds from young elm trees; however, the average life span of the species will be drastically reduced.

The Aquatic Civilization of Middle Africa

Between the ninth and third millennia B.C. wetter conditions prevailed over most of Africa. Lakes and rivers were fuller and some of the internal basins were temporarily linked, especially in the ‘Middle African’ belt. This comprises the southern Sahara and Sahel, stretching from the Upper Niger to the Middle Nile, with a south-easterly extension into the Upper Nile basin and the East African rift valleys. This situation was exploited by people who developed a decidedly aquatic economy and culture. From their waterside camps and settlements archaeologists have recovered bones of fish and aquatic animals which these people ate, as well as the distinctive harpoon-heads carved from bone with which they obtained them, and also pottery, bearing peculiar decoration executed with fish-bones and water-shells, made in imitation of (fishing-) baskets. Boating and other cultural developments are deducible. The harpoons date back to 7,000 b.c. at least; the pottery dates back to more than 6,000 b.c. and was clearly an African invention. It reflects important developments in gastronomy and home life.In the Kenya rift valley the main stage of Leakey's ‘Kenya Capsian’ culture is essentially the local manifestation of this far-flung ‘aquatic civilization’.Its greatest extent was achieved during the wettest times of the seventh millennium b.c., and probably involved the expansion of Negroid peoples across this continent-wide savanna belt. Also explained perhaps is the extensive, though now fragmented, distribution of languages which Greenberg combines in his ‘Nilo-Saharan’ super-family. It is suspected that aspects of this ancient aquatic way of life may be maintained or reflected by latter-day isolated or ‘unclean’ lake or swamp communities. This subject has been largely neglected by African culture-historians.Drier conditions in the late sixth and fifth millennia b.c. signalled a decline of this aquatic civilization and, in particular, broke its geographical continuity. Nevertheless, there was a qualified revival in many parts in the fourth and third millennia. In the Kenya rift this later phase seems to equate with the first stage of the ‘stone bowl cultures’. Around Lake Victoria a devolved relic survived until the eve of Bantu expansion about two thousand years ago. Other late or modified examples are known on the Nile and in the western Sudan. Generally, however, the viability and prestige of an aquatic way of life were undermined by the second millennium b.c. In the Sahara and Sahel as well as in the northerly parts of eastern Africa this decline was paralleled by the spread of pastoralism as a new basis of subsistence and prestige. Those who introduced cattle to Kenya from Ethiopia were Cushitic-speakers maintaining, significantly, a fish-taboo.This subject should prove of considerable historiographical interest. The aquatic way of life flourished through Middle Africa at the very time when grain-agriculture and stock-raising were being pioneered in the Near East; and the slow spread of agriculture in Africa, sometimes considered an indication of ‘backwardness’, may be partly explicable by the very success of the aquatic life and of its distinct cultural tradition which was ascendant for a while across the widest part of the continent.

Community Structure and Stability in Constant Environments

Previous articleNext article No AccessLetters to the EditorsCommunity Structure and Stability in Constant EnvironmentsDouglas J. FutuymaDouglas J. Futuyma Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The American Naturalist Volume 107, Number 955May - Jun., 1973 Published for The American Society of Naturalists Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/282845 Views: 15Total views on this site Citations: 30Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1973 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Minehiro Ishii, Junya Takeshita, Mitsugu Ishiyama, Masayuki Tani, Masanori Koike, Daigo Aiuchi Evaluation of the pathogenicity and infectivity of entomopathogenic hypocrealean fungi, isolated from wild mosquitoes in Japan and Burkina Faso, against female adult Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, Fungal Ecology 15 (Jun 2015): 39–50.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2015.02.002Ragupathy Kannan, Douglas A. James Fruiting Phenology and the Conservation of the Great Pied Hornbill (Buceros bicornis) in the Western Ghats of Southern India1, Biotropica 31, no.11 (Mar 1999): 167–177.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.1999.tb00127.x Douglas E. Gill Sewall Wright Award 1997: Douglas Joel Futuyma Gill, The American Naturalist 152, no.11 (Jul 2015): i–vi.https://doi.org/10.1086/513674Shahid Naeem Species Redundancy and Ecosystem Reliability, Conservation Biology 12, no.11 (Jul 2008): 39–45.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.1998.96379.xShahid Naeem , Conservation Biology 12, no.11 ( 1998): 39.https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1998.96379.xMarcel Rejmánek Species Richness and Resistance to Invasions, (Jan 1996): 153–172.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79755-2_8NELSON RAMIREZ, YSALENY BRITO Pollination biology in a palm swamp community in the Venezuelan Central Plains, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 110, no.44 (Jun 2008): 277–302.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8339.1992.tb00294.xDouglas J. Futuyma Die Evolution der Wechselwirkung zwischen Arten, (Jan 1990): 547–572.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-5235-7_16Christopher S. Rose, Michael J. Risk Increase in Cliona delitrix Infestation of Montastrea cavernosa Heads on an Organically Polluted Portion of the Grand Cayman Fringing Reef, Marine Ecology 6, no.44 (Dec 1985): 345–363.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0485.1985.tb00142.x Bruce A. Wilcox , and Dennis D. Murphy Conservation Strategy: The Effects of Fragmentation on Extinction, The American Naturalist 125, no.66 (Oct 2015): 879–887.https://doi.org/10.1086/284386L. H. Erbe, H. I. Freedman Modeling persistence and mutual interference among subpopulations of ecological communities, Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 47, no.22 (Mar 1985): 295–304.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02460038 Henry F. Howe Constraints on the Evolution of Mutualisms, The American Naturalist 123, no.66 (Oct 2015): 764–777.https://doi.org/10.1086/284238Henry F. Howe Implications of seed dispersal by animals for tropical reserve management, Biological Conservation 30, no.33 (Jan 1984): 261–281.https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(84)90087-9Norman Myers A priority-ranking strategy for threatened species?, The Environmentalist 3, no.22 (Jun 1983): 97–120.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02240157James A. Bohnsack Resiliency of reef fish communities in the Florida Keys following a January 1977 hypothermal fish kill, Environmental Biology of Fishes 9, no.11 (May 1983): 41–53.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00001057E. Raymond Heithaus Coevolution between Bats and Plants, (Jan 1982): 327–367.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-3421-7_9 John P. Sutherland The Fouling Community at Beaufort, North Carolina: A Study in Stability, The American Naturalist 118, no.44 (Oct 2015): 499–519.https://doi.org/10.1086/283844Richard P. Seifert Biogeographic Patterns among Milkweed Insects, (Jan 1981): 207–220.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5941-1_13D.T. Wicklow Biogeography and Conidial Fungi, (Jan 1981): 417–447.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-179501-6.50021-1 Lawrence R. Lawlor Structure and Stability in Natural and Randomly Constructed Competitive Communities, The American Naturalist 116, no.33 (Oct 2015): 394–408.https://doi.org/10.1086/283634 John W. Glasser The Role of Predation in Shaping and Maintaining the Structure of Communities, The American Naturalist 113, no.55 (Oct 2015): 631–641.https://doi.org/10.1086/283422Antoni Hoffman Community paleoecology as an epiphenomenal science, Paleobiology 5, no.44 (Feb 2016): 357–379.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0094837300016894 Sally J. Holbrook Rodent Faunal Turnover and Prehistoric Community Stability in Northwestern New Mexico, The American Naturalist 111, no.982982 (Oct 2015): 1195–1208.https://doi.org/10.1086/283245 Henry F. Howe , and George F. Estabrook On Intraspecific Competition for Avian Dispersers in Tropical Trees, The American Naturalist 111, no.981981 (Oct 2015): 817–832.https://doi.org/10.1086/283216ALAN R. HILL ECOSYSTEM STABILITY IN RELATION TO STRESSES CAUSED BY HUMAN ACTIVITIES, The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien 19, no.33 (Sep 1975): 206–220.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0064.1975.tb01862.x References, (Jan 1975): 154–181.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0422-9894(08)71112-7 References, (Jan 1975): 395–410.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0920-5446(08)70274-7Geerat J. Vermeij MARINE FAUNAL DOMINANCE AND MOLLUSCAN SHELL FORM, Evolution 28, no.44 (May 2017): 656–664.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1974.tb00797.x Peter A. Jumars Two Pitfalls in Comparing Communities of Differing Diversities, The American Naturalist 108, no.961961 (Oct 2015): 389–391.https://doi.org/10.1086/282917Charles W. Thayer Taxonomic and Environmental Stability in the Paleozoic, Science 182, no.41184118 (Dec 1973): 1242–1243.https://doi.org/10.1126/science.182.4118.1242

The Classification of Lowland Swamp Communities in Northeastern Papua

EcologyVolume 40, Issue 4 p. 703-711 Article The Classification of Lowland Swamp Communities in Northeastern Papua B. W. Taylor, B. W. TaylorSearch for more papers by this author B. W. Taylor, B. W. TaylorSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 October 1959 https://doi.org/10.2307/1929822Citations: 8AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume40, Issue4October 1959Pages 703-711 RelatedInformation