after a disturbance of the food web at the regional level of resolution .... forest in Lamington National Park in south- east Queensland ..... New Jersey. Cohen J. E. ...
Australian Journal of Ecology (\ 990) 15, 199-205
The ecology of water-filled treeholes in Australian rainforests: Food web reassembly as a measure of community recovery after disturbance
B. JENKINS R. L. KITCHING Department of Eeosystem Management. University of New England. Armidate, NSIV 2351, Austratia
Abstract
Ten water-ftUed tree holes in a subtropical rainforest were emptied out thereby imposing a major perturbation on the eommuntty of organisms which occupied these habitat units. During the process of food web reassembly fottowing this disturbance, the average number of predator speeies in the web increased as did the average number of prey species. Predatorprey ratios increased in magnitude with the number of days after the disturbance. Eurthermore, the characteristie mean predator-prey ratio ofthe original community was graduatty restored as the food web reassembted. The number ofprev species was found to be a better predictor of the number of predator species during community recovery than viceversa. Ttie increasing number of trophic tint
