Nicholas Klomp

Complexity in landscape ecology

Foreword.- Preface.- 1. Complexity and ecology.- 2. Seeing the wood for the trees.- 3. Complexity in landscapes.- 4. Oh, what a tangled web.- 5. The imbalance of nature.- 6. Populations in landscapes.- 7. Living with the neighbours.- 8. Genetics and adaptation in landscapes.- 9. Virtual worlds.- 10. Digital ecology.- 11. The global picture.- References.- Index.

Chick-provisioning behaviour of the Providence Petrel, Pterodroma solandri

Abstract This paper provides the first detailed description of the chick-provisioning behaviour of the Providence Petrel, Pterodroma solandri, breeding on Lord Howe Island, New South Wales. Meal size, feeding frequency, timing of feeding, chick weight loss and food conversion efficiency of 5–7-week-old Providence Petrel chicks were determined using 4-h weighing techniques. Chicks were fed mainly at night, with adults returning to the colony during the day only rarely. The mean meal size fed to chicks was 88.55 g, representing 18.2% of adult body mass. There was evidence to suggest that chicks were not accepting all of the food provided to them; those chicks known to receive two feeds in a night were fed less food on their second feed. The minimum amount of food each chick required to maintain constant body mass was 32.04 g of food per day, which is much lower than the average meal size fed to chicks. Chicks received a meal once every 4 days, on average, with the mean interval between successive feeds by the same adult being 7.56 days. This long feeding interval coupled with the low meal size requirements of chicks and the presence of proventricular oil in the chicks’ diet suggests that breeding adults are travelling significant distances from Lord Howe Island.

COMPLEXITY IN LANDSCAPES

Complexity often arises in the way things are distributed in a landscape. Sampling is subject to scale and can display properties of fractals. Cellular automata, which represent a landscape as a grid of sites, are often used to model processes in landscapes. These models highlight the phase change that occurs between connected and fragmented landscapes.

COMPLEXITY AND ECOLOGY

Complexity is the richness and variety often seen in large systems. Species diversity is often used to represent complexity in ecosystems, but true complexity arises from the enormous number of ways to order combinations of objects. To manage the natural world successfully, we need to understand ecological complexity.