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<br />Joseph H. Connell <br /> <br />move the allelopathic effects also destroy <br />or drive out the grazing animals (Halligan, <br />1972; Christiansen, 1973). Either experi- <br />mental removal of the tops of allelopathic <br />plants or exclusion of grazing vertebrates <br />by cages or fences, or both, has been done <br />in several instances, When vertebrate <br />grazers alone were excluded, herbs have <br />sometimes become established in abun- <br />dance near allelopathic shrubs (Bartholo- <br />mew, 1970; Halligan, 1972), sometimes <br />much less abundantly or not at all (Mc- <br />Pherson and Muller, 1969; Muller and del <br />Moral, 1971; Chou and Muller, 1972; <br />Christiansen, 1973). The biggest change <br />has been reported when both grazing and <br />aIlelopathy have been experimentally <br />eliminated together in these studies. The <br />conclusion from these studies is that both <br />allelopathic interference between the <br />plants and grazing by herbivores influence <br />the community structure of chaparral <br />vegetation. <br />Some field experiments testing the inter- <br />action between grazing and competition <br />between grasses and forbs have been done <br />on sheep pastures (Sagar and Harper, <br />1961; Putwain and Harper, 1970). They <br />indicate that grazing may reduce compe- <br />tition, but without knowledge of whether <br />wild herbivores graze natural vegetation <br />at the same intensity as these sheep did, <br />it is difficult to generalize from these re- <br />sults. <br />The effect of predators on terrestrial <br />animals has seldom been estimated from <br />field experiments under natural condi- <br />tions. The only controlled field experiment <br />r know of concerns the effect of wood- <br />peckers on Englemann spruce beetles <br /> <br />468 <br /> <br />(Knight, 1958). The birds concentrate <br />their attacks both in the groves and on the <br />individual trees where the beetles are <br />commonest. By using exclusion cages on <br />250 trees in the Rocky Mountains, Knight <br />was able to show that the predators caused <br />proportionately greater mortality where <br />the prey were denser. Murdoch (] 966) has <br />shown that carabid beetles will survive <br />well through the summer only when pro- <br />tected from predation. <br />Predators of terrestrial vertebrates do <br />not seem to be so effective in reducing <br />their prey, for reasons which will be dis- <br />cussed later. Predators of ruffed grouse <br />were removed almost completely in two <br />different places; nesting losses were re- <br />duced but the adult populations did not <br />increase (Edminster, 1939; Crissey and <br />Darrow, 1949). This supports the sugges- <br />tion of Levins (Chapter I) that a change <br />in production of one life stage may not <br />affect the abundance of another life stage <br />limited by some other factor. When about <br />half of the predators of the vole (Microtus <br />calif amicus) were removed during a peak <br />in vole numbers, the population declined <br />to the same degree as it had from a previ- <br />ous peak (Pearson, 1966). The often-cited <br />instance of an irruption of the deer popu- <br />]ation following the reduction in their <br />predators on the Kaibab plateau of Ari- <br />zona has been shown to be incorrect by <br />Caughley (1970). There is one instance in <br />which predators have been effective in <br />reducing mammalian populations, i.e., <br />wolves and moose on Isle Royale in Lake <br />Superior. Although no controlled experi- <br />ments have been done, the evidence <br />strongly suggests that before the wolves <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />16 Producing Structure in Natural <br />Communities <br /> <br />arrived the moose were so dense that their <br />feeding was injuring the vegetation. This <br />is not happening now that wolves are <br />feeding on the moose (Mech, 1966; Jordan <br />Shelton, and Allen, 1967). <br />In freshwater. The zooplankton of <br />open water in lakes without planktivorous <br />fish usually consists of several species of <br />relatively large crustaceans, together with <br />smaller species of various groups. After <br />planktivorous fish have been introduced <br />and increased substantially, the larger <br />species of zooplankton are absent from <br />the open water and the smaller species are <br />much commoner. Several studies have <br />compared the same pond or lake before <br />and after fish were introduced, and all <br />have found that the large species dis- <br />appeared and the smaller species in- <br />creased, suggesting that the fish selectively <br />ate the larger zooplankters (Hrabacek et <br />al., 1961; Brooks and Dodson, 1965; <br />Macan, 1965; Reif and Tappa, 1966; <br />Galbraith, 1967; Wells, 1970; Hall, <br />Cooper and Werner, 1970; Warshaw, <br />1972). Brooks (1968) has confirmed that <br />planktivorous fish selectively eat the larger <br />zooplankton in laboratory experiments, as <br />have Galbraith (1967) and Green (]967) <br />by comparing stomach contents with <br />plankton samples. <br />Where large aquatic vegetation is <br />dense, the herbivorous zooplankton is <br />much more abundant, even though phyto- <br />plankton productivity is less. A likely rea- <br />son for this is that fish predation is less <br />effective in dense vegetation. Hall et 01. <br />(1970), found that in ponds with dense <br />vegetation (caused by addition of large <br />amounts of mineral nutrients) the biomass <br /> <br />469 <br /> <br />of zooplankton was not reduced signifi- <br />cantly by fish. But in replicate ponds with <br />less vegetation, fish reduced the biomass <br />of zooplankton significantly below that in <br />control ponds. <br />Other predators besides fish may <br />change the biomass and/or relative abun- <br />dance of zooplankton. In a series of alpine <br />ponds in Colorado where salamanders <br />(Ambysloma) were common, the herbivo- <br />rous zooplankton species were small. <br />\Vhere salamanders were rarer or absent, <br />larger herbivores occurred (Dodson, ] 970; <br />Sprules, 1972). Like fish, salamanders also <br />tend to select the larger individuals as <br />prey, judging by stomach contents and <br />]a bora tory experiments. <br />Field experiments on invertebrate pred- <br />ators have been conducted in only one <br />study, by Hall et 01. (]970). The biomass <br />of zooplankton was consistently lower in <br />treatments with increased invertebrate <br />predation. The predators removed the <br />larger herbivores first, thereby changing <br />the species composition of the community <br />in the same fashion as the vertebrate <br />predators did. <br />It is difficult to decide whether fish or <br />invertebrate predators have a greater <br />effect on the relative abundance of species <br />in the zooplankton. The field experiments <br />of Hall et 0/. (1970) underestimated the <br />effects of invertebrate predators since a <br />small predator, Chaoborus, was left be- <br />hind in the "reduced" treatment. Dodson <br />(1970) calculated that the predation rate <br />on Daphnia by the population of preda- <br />tory midge larvae was about 10 times that <br />of the salamander population. However, <br />in the experimental ponds of Hall et a/. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />II <br />4 <br />:If <br />