Broad-Scale Patterns in Pleistocene Coral Reef Communities from the Caribbean: Implications for Ecology and Management

Abstract

Ecologists are asking very important questions about the maintenance of the high species diversity so typical of tropical reef ecosystems. Some ecologists believe that species diversity in reef communities is influenced by differential recruitment to specific sites. Community structure, then, is dependent upon larval dispersal, or limits to dispersal, and the taxonomic composition of the local community should reflect the abundance and migration of larvae in the regional species pool. In this view, what biotic interaction exists imposes little influence on community structure. Local community structure might be similar over large spatial and temporal scales but only because the regional species pool is constant (Doherty and Williams 1988; Hubbell 1997). Conversely, local community structure might be highly variable over large spatial and temporal scales because the composition of the regional species pool is varying, or stochastic events interrupt or enhance the supply of larvae over space and time. An important corollary is that regional species diversity strongly influences local species diversity (Cornell and Lawton