U.S.-Australia Cooperative Research: Regional and Local Influences on Species Richness in Coral Communities Across a Pacific Diversity Gradient

小行星9724759 特拉华州大学生物系的霍华德康奈尔教授和罗纳德卡尔森教授以及澳大利亚詹姆斯库克大学海洋生物系的特伦斯休斯博士将在整个西印度洋和中太平洋区域物种丰富度不断增加的六个区域对珊瑚进行取样，以定量评估区域和当地进程对当地丰富度的相对影响。 将收集有关物种存在、相对丰度、栖息地宽度和选定物种的深度范围的数据，以测试不断增加的区域池对当地丰富度、均匀度、栖息地压缩和栖息地重叠的影响。 这种区域和地方观点的综合不仅为群落生态学的基础研究，而且为与物种保护、生境丧失和破碎化以及生态恢复有关的应用问题提供了一个综合的概念框架。

9724759 CORNELL Professors Howard Cornell and Ronald Karlson of the Department of Biology at the University of Delaware, and Dr. Terence P. Hughes of the Department of Marine Biology of James Cook University, Australia, will sample corals in six sectors of increasing regional species richness across the Indo-West and Central Pacific Ocean to quantitatively evaluate the relative influence of regional and local processes on local richness. Data will be collected on species presence, relative abundance, habitat breadth, and depth range of selected species to test the effects of the increasing regional pool on local richness, evenness, habitat compression, and habitat overlap. This synthesis of regional and local perspectives should provide an integrated conceptual framework not only for basic studies of community ecology but also for applied problems associated with species extinctions, habitat loss and fragmentation, and ecological restoration.