American Zoologist articles from February 1999

American Zoologist archives from February 1999

Coral Adaptation and Acclimatization: A Most Ingenious Paradox(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION "A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox!" (W. S. Gilbert, "The Pirates of Penzance") Coral reefs are one of the few marine ecosystems that might be described as "charismatic." Their diversity, complexity, and...

Coral Reefs and Environmental Change: Adaptation to What?(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION Living coral reefs in general (although not each individual reef) have survived over many millions of years, despite large amplitude fluctuations in climate and sea level over the glacial-interglacial cycles (Kinzie and...

The Physiological Mechanisms of Acclimatization in Tropical Reef Corals(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION There is concern regarding the ability of scleractinian corals and reef communities to tolerate changes in the global environment predicted to result from [CO.sub.2] emissions and global warming. In the marine environment,...

Organism Responses to Rapid Change: What Aquaria Tell Us About Nature(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION Colonies of alcyonarian and scleractinian corals have survived more than a decade in some closed-system aquariums, contrary to the notion that corals are too delicate to survive in captivity. Even the most difficult corals,...

Population Structure as a Response of Coral Communities to Global Change(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION Populations are commonly defined as dynamic groups of individuals of the same species (e.g., Hastings, 1997). There are two important concepts in population biology concerning scale and interaction between individuals. At the...

Coral Community Adaptability to Environmental Change at the Scales of Regions, Reefs and Reef Zones(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION I use the term "coral community" to describe the local assemblage of stony coral and other conspicuous benthic populations which can co-habit with them (e.g., algae, soft corals, zooanthids) on reefal or non-reefal substrates...

Sex, Symbiosis and Coral Reef Communities(1).
February 1, 1999... Il faut se preparer a tout dans des cas si extraordinaires... (A. Trembley in Dawson 1987) The papers in this issue address two questions which are central to the concerns set out by Buddemeier and Smith (1998) in the introduction. a)...

Responses of Clonal Reef Taxa to Environmental Change(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION Coral reefs are dominated by clonal taxa (Jackson, 1977). Two decades of research has shown that many members of reef communities, including large and conspicuous taxa, such as corals, octocorals, zoanthids and sponges, have...

Integration of Local and Regional Perspectives on the Species Richness of Coral Assemblages(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION In recent years, community ecologists have begun to recognize the influence of large-scale phenomena on the structure of local communities (e.g., Ricklefs and Schluter, 1993; Giller et al., 1994). These comprise a wide variety...

Response of Pleistocene Coral Reefs to Environmental Change Over Long Temporal Scales(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION Environmental change has had a profound effect on the Earth's biota throughout the history of life. Some of these changes have occurred on the very grandest of scales, such as the coalescence and subsequent breaking up of huge...

Genetic Structure of Coral Reef Organisms: Ghosts of Dispersal Past(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION An instructive approach to understanding how coral reef species and communities might respond to global change is to examine how they have been affected by changes in the past. Information from fossil material, and data on the...

Environmental Limits to Coral Reef Development: Where Do We Draw the Line?(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION Coral reefs have long been considered stenotolerant ecosystems, confined by a relatively narrow range of environmental conditions. Reefs are broadly recognized as being limited to warm, clear, shallow, and fully saline waters....

Photosynthesis and Calcification at Cellular, Organismal and Community Levels in Coral Reefs: A Review on Interactions and Control by Carbonate Chemistry(1).
February 1, 1999... INTRODUCTION Coral reefs are the most striking example of benthic, photosynthetic and calcifying ecosystems. They display the greatest abundance and diversity of Ca[CO.sub.3]-depositing organisms that carry out photosynthesis (calcareous...

Evolution on Islands.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Evolution on Islands, PETER R. GRANT, ed. Oxford University Press, 1998, 334 pp., cloth $105.00, paper $50.00. ISBN 0-19-850172-2, 0-19-850171-4. "Islands are an enormously important source of information and an unparalleled testing ground...

Night Comes to the Cretaceous.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Night Comes to the Cretaceous. JAMES LAWRENCE POWELL. W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, 1998, xvi + 249 pp., $22.95, ISBN 0-7167-3117-7. Night Comes To The Cretaceous is a workmanlike account of recent research into the...

Benthic Suspension Feeders and Flow.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Benthic Suspension Feeders and Flow. DAVID WILDISH AND DAVID KRISTMANSON. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, 409 pp., $69.95 U.S. (ISBN 0-521-44523-X). This book is a work of passion for understanding the intersecting set of...

Introduction to the Primates.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Introduction to the Primates. DARIS R. SWINDLER. University of Washington Press, 1998, 336 pp., $22.00 paperback (ISBN 0-295-97704-8). Primates are not particularly diverse, speciose, or anatomically-specialized, yet nearly 200 books have...

Embryology: Constructing The Organism.(Review)
February 1, 1999... Embryology: Constructing The Organism. S. E GILBERT AND A. M. RAUNIO. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, MA, 1997, 537 pp., $69.95 (ISBN 0-87893-237-2). With recent renewed interest in comparative embryology and the focus of...