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Methodological and conceptual issues in the search for a relationship between animal body-size distributions and benthic habitat architecture
Robson, BJ and Barmuta, LA and Fairweather, PG (2005) Methodological and conceptual issues in the search for a relationship between animal body-size distributions and benthic habitat architecture. Marine and Freshwater Research, 56 (1). pp. 1-11. ISSN 1323-1650
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Benthic ecologists have studied the distribution of animal body sizes because it is a form of 'taxon-free' classification that may be a useful metric for describing variation within and between ecological communities. In particular, the idea that the allometry of physiological and life-history traits may control species composition and relative abundances implies a functional link between body-size distributions and communities. The physical structure of aquatic habitats has often been cited as the mechanism by which habitat may determine body-size distributions in communities. However, further progress is hindered by a lack of theoretical clarity regarding the mechanisms that connect body size to the characteristics of ecological communities, leading to methods that may obscure interesting trends in body-size data. This review examines the methodological and conceptual issues hindering progress in the search for a relationship between animal body size and habitat architecture and suggests ways to resolve these issues. Problems are identified with current methods for the measurement of animal body size, the data and measures used to quantify body-size distributions and the methods used to identify patterns therein. Fundamentally, renewed emphasis on the mechanisms by which animal body sizes are influenced by habitat architecture is required to refine methodology and synthesise results from pattern-seeking and mechanistic studies.
|Keywords:||body-size spectra experimental design habitat complexity habitat structure macroecology critique|
|Journal or Publication Title:||Marine and Freshwater Research|
|Page Range:||pp. 1-11|
|Identification Number - DOI:||10.1071/MF04210|
|Date Deposited:||21 Sep 2007|
|Last Modified:||18 Nov 2014 03:22|
|Item Statistics:||View statistics for this item|
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