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Disturbance frequency and community structure in a twenty-five year intervention study.

Joel C Trexler1, William F Loftus, Sue Perry

  • 1Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA. trexlerj@fiu.edu

Oecologia
|July 19, 2005
PubMed
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Reducing drought frequency in the Everglades ecosystem led to increased small fish density. Less frequent drying promotes predator-dominated regulation of fish communities, shifting ecological dynamics.

Area of Science:

  • Ecological dynamics
  • Community ecology
  • Hydrological disturbance

Background:

  • Community regulation models often link disturbance gradients with biotic interactions.
  • Higher trophic levels are predicted to be more sensitive to intermediate disturbance levels than their prey.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the effects of hydrological disturbance frequency on small-fish communities in the Everglades.
  • To understand how manipulating drought frequency influences community structure and dynamics.

Main Methods:

  • Intervention analysis using hydrological disturbance frequency manipulation.
  • Monitoring fish communities at long-hydroperiod, short-hydroperiod, and intervention sites in the Everglades from 1978-2002.
  • Analyzing community change, density, relative abundance, and dissimilarity in relation to drying events.

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Main Results:

  • Intervention to diminish drying frequency caused the intervention site's community dynamics to converge with the long-hydroperiod site.
  • Community change occurred within 3-5 years post-drying if inundation persisted; time since last dry and dry period length predicted dynamics.
  • Small fish density increased with reduced drought frequency, supporting disturbance-limited community structure.

Conclusions:

  • Hydrological manipulation at the landscape scale influences drought patterns and community-level successional dynamics.
  • Extended drought return times (beyond 4 years) lead to convergence on specific species compositions.
  • Reduced drought frequency results in predator-dominated regulation of small-fish communities in the Everglades.