book reviews ISSN 1948-6596 Ecology of Australian Temperate Reefs Ecology of Australian Temperate Reefs: The Unique South. Scoresby Shepherd & Graham Edgar (editors), 2013, CSIRO Publishing. 520 pp. AU$130.00 (hardback) ISBN: 9781486300099; http://www.publish.csiro.au/ This book is a lavishly-produced text that links geological history, oceanography, and biogeogra- phy with future threats to Australian temperate marine ecosystems and their biodiversity. The Preface claims that the book is directed at three audiences. One, marine ecologists who want to broaden their background knowledge; the book certainly would be useful in this regard. Two, un- der- or post-graduate students; the book would be a useful main or supplemental text for a course. Three, as a reference work for “skilled amateur divers and underwater photographers (page xi)”; I disagree, as it's perhaps a bit too de- tailed for the most part, despite what may have been a Publisher’s imperative to sell copies. There are five main parts to the book. A pot- ted summary of the geology, oceanography and biogeographic history of the Southern Ocean. The ecologies of each of the three main taxa: the algae, the invertebrates, and the vertebrates. The last sec- tion covers ecosystems and their conservation. Part One, the backdrop to modern biodiver- sity, was very informative and unusual in a text on marine ecology, providing (in the book’s Table 1.1) a useful summary of the events from 100 Mya to the present, in terms of climatic, tectonic, oceano- graphic and biotic events. Given the current con- cerns about ocean acidification, the section on carbon dioxide in a historic context was very use- ful in terms of past impacts. The rapid summaries of marine taxa in terms of their evolution and his- toric constraints quickly gets the reader up to speed, and includes all key fossil taxa that remain today. Table 3.2 lists the main marine taxa, with information on species diversity, endemism and dispersal potential. However, boundaries of the area of endemism are not stated, and whether they are the same for each taxon is unclear, which would be important to know since endemism is related to habitat area. Also, some of the calcula- tions appear to be in error. For instance, the per- centage of global species richness in temperate Australia for molluscs is given as ca. 8% of 96,850 species, but this should be 20% (19,000 Southern Australian species). And 71 of 1250 species of pycnogonids is 6% not 11%. Evolution and radia- tion of taxa are examined in some detail for many well known—for instance Haliotis abalones and cowries—and less well known taxa—such as the odacine marine fishes. Despite the preface claiming that modeling is not a focus of the volume, Part One ends with several pages comparing the expectations of two key models of southern biodiversity. This may be too much for lay readers but I feel rounds off the section nicely. Parts Two to Four address higher taxa, in turn algae, invertebrates and vertebrates. In Part Two, the algae chapters, case studies fol- low two key habitat formers, Ecklonia radiata and the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera. Each case study considers morphology and growth forms, then demographic parameters and their spatial variation. Table 4.1 is a very useful com- parison of growth, biomass and survival charac- teristics around southern Australia for the ubiquitous Ecklonia radiata. The relationship between depth and biomass is explored further in Figure 4.3 however the potential confound- ing effect of latitude (the shallowest sites ap- pear to be at lower latitudes) isn’t discussed. The giant kelp’s role in the ecosystem is em- phasised including interesting facts such as its ability to enhance lobster puerulus (larvae) re- tention. Pages 99—104 contain an extensive examination of the role of exposure and water movement on algal species distribution across the region. While interesting, I felt that it probably could have been summarised in a ta- ble and in shorter prose. As in previous parts, there is a synthesis and modelling section at the end, although the very simplistic state- change model shown in Fig 5.16 could probably have been described in a sentence instead. frontiers of biogeography 6.3, 2014 — © 2014 the authors; journal compilation © 2014 The International Biogeography Society
Read more
2
