Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T16:39:03.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Ecological succession on cobble substrates: a reply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2016

Mark A. Wilson*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio 44691

Extract

In a recent paper, Kobluk and Lysenko (1987) described the effects of hurricanes on coral and milleporid distribution in coral reef rubble near the coast of a Fijian island. Their main thesis was that cryptic sub-rubble coral populations may act as “preserves” for reef surface communities. This was supported by data showing that on the protected undersides of boulders the composition of post-hurricane coral and milleporid populations were little changed from their pre-hurricane states. In a final section entitled “Paleontological implications,” Kobluk and Lysenko (1987, p. 673) stated, “Wilson (1985) studied just such a rubble-dwelling fauna in the Ordovician of Kentucky.” The authors then discussed “another interpretation” of the paleoecologic succession described in Wilson (1985). Because the Ordovician succession described by Wilson may be one of the few valid examples of an autogenic ecological succession in the fossil record (see Miller, 1986) the re-interpretation by Kobluk and Lysenko (1987) must be answered.

Type
Paleontological Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Davis, A. N., and Wilce, R. T. 1987. Algal diversity in relation to physical disturbance: a mosaic of successional stages in a subtidal cobble habitat. Marine Ecology—Progress Series, 37:229237.Google Scholar
Kobluk, D. R., and Lysenko, M. A. 1987. Impact of two sequential Pacific hurricanes on sub-rubble cryptic corals: the possible role of cryptic organisms in maintenance of coral reef communities. Journal of Paleontology, 61:663675.Google Scholar
McAuliffe, J. R. 1984. Competition for space, disturbance, and the structure of a benthic stream community. Ecology, 65:894908.Google Scholar
Miller, W. III. 1986. Paleoecology of benthic community replacement. Lethaia, 19:225231.Google Scholar
Osman, R. W. 1977. The establishment and development of a marine epifaunal community. Ecological Monographs, 47:3763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M. A. 1985. Disturbance and ecologic succession in an Upper Ordovician cobble-dwelling hardground fauna. Science, 228:575577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar