394 



COMMUNITY ECOLOGY: 



would immediately cause the scheme to become 

 static. The diet subdivisions are herbivores with sub- 

 units of vegetation feeders and seed eaters, insectivores 

 (insect eaters), carnivores (meat eaters), piscivores (fish 

 eaters), and omnivores (variable plant and animal eat- 

 ers), all functional niches. These functional niches 

 are the primary units of subdivision. Secondary sub- 

 division, based upon means of locomotion, is not 

 necessary for understanding of the scheme. 



A summary of number of species in particular 

 niches in relation to faunas is given in Table 19,2. 



lABll 79.2 ANALYSIS OF NORTH AMERICAN 

 FAUNAS BY NICHES (IN PER CENT) 



Another rough approximation discloses that eight- 

 een genera of North American mammals are Boreal, 

 twenty-one are Afaunal, seven are Deciduan, and fif- 

 teen are Sonoran. In addition, nine genera are 

 Boreal-Sonoran, five are Boreal-Deciduan, and six are 

 Sonoran-Deciduan. In birds, approximately 74 gen- 

 era are Boreal, 62 are Afaunal, 25 are Deciduan, and 

 63 are Sonoran. Also, 22 are Boreal-Sonoran, 18 are 

 Boreal-Deciduan, and 56 are Sonoran-Deciduan. In 

 reptiles, one is Boreal, five are Afaunal, 26 are De- 

 ciduan, and 31 are Sonoran. Interfaunal inhabitants 

 are two Boreal-Sonoran, no Boreal-Deciduan, and 

 20 Sonoran-Deciduan. Finally, amphibians have five 

 Boreal, six Afaunal, 16 Deciduan, three Sonoran, two 

 Boreal-Sonoran, one Boreal-Deciduan, and five 

 Sonoran-Deciduan. 



SCHEME INTERRELATIONSHIPS 



No distribution scheme is unique. Each scheme is 

 related to others, and no scheme need necessarily be 

 the only summarization that is of value. This is es- 

 pecially true of the biomes, biotic provinces, and 

 dynamic fauna. Biomes stress climatic climaxes and 

 their similarities of structure and form. Biotic prov- 

 inces, focus upon potential centers of new evolution- 

 ary development. Dynamic fauna remove considera- 

 tion from a static view by emphasizing the immediate 

 consequence of past history of flora and fauna in 

 terms of major units of evolution as defined through 

 adaptations in climaxes and differentiation areas. 



Therefore, biomes and biotic provinces are extremely 

 useful summarizations of present conditions in a 

 static sense, and dynamic fauna are summarizations 

 of what has happened and is happening through 

 time. 



SEtECTED READINGS* 

 Andrewartha, H. G., and L. C. Birch, 1954. The Distribu- 

 tion and Abundance of Animals. The University of Chicago 



Press, Chicago. 

 Andrews, H. N., Jr., 1961. Studies in Paleobotany. John Wiley 



and Sons, New York. 

 A.xelrod, D. I., 1959. Geological History. In .4 C.alilarma 



Flora by Philip A. Munz. University of California 



Press, Berkeley. 

 Cain, S. A., 1944. Foundations of Plant Geography. Harper, 



New York. 

 Clements, F. E., andV. E. Shelford, 1939. Bio-ecology. John 



Wiley & Sons, New York. 

 Dansereau, Pierre, 1957, Biogeography, an Ecological Perspec- 

 tive. The Ronald Press, New York, 

 Darlington, P. J., Jr., 1957. <j)ogeography : The Geographical 



Distribution of Animals. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 

 Dice, L. R., 1943. The Biotic Provinces of .\orth .America. 



University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 

 . 1949. .\atural Communities. University of Michigan 



Press, Ann Arbor. 

 Elton, G., 1958. The Ecology of Invasions by .Animals and 



Plants. Methuen & Co. Ltd., London. 

 Gordon, K. L., 1947. The Origin and Distribution of Liv- 

 ing North American Mammals. In Biogeography . 



Oregon State College, Corvallis, Ore. 

 Hanson, H. C, and E. D. Churchill, 1961. The Plant Com- 

 munity. Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York. 

 Life Editorial Staff and A. Beiser, 1962. The Earth. Life 



Nature Library. Time Inc., New York. 

 Life Editorial Staff and L. Engel, 1961. The Sea. Life 



Nature Library. Time Inc., New York. 

 Life Editorial Staff and P. Farb, 1961. The Forest. Life 



Nature Library. Time Inc., New York. 

 Life Editorial Staff and A. S. Leopold, 1961. The Desert. 



Life Nature Library. Time Inc., New York. 

 Life Editorial Staff and W. Ley, 1962. The Poles. Life 



Nature Library. Time Inc., New \'ork. 

 Life Editorial Staff, L.J. Milne and M. Milne, 1962. The 



.Mountains. Life Nature Library. Time Inc., New York. 

 Oosting, H.J. , 1956. The Study of Plant Communities. 2nd ed. 



W. H. Freeman Co., San Francisco, Calif. 

 Polunin, Nicholas, 1960. Introduction to Plant Geography and 



■Some Related Sciences. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New 



York. 

 Wulff, E. v., 1942. An Introduction to Historical Plant 



Geography. 3rd ed., translated by E. Brissenden. 



Chronica Botanica Co., Waltham, Mass. 



*.Scc iilso the General Ecology References on p. 338. 



