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Walia Special Edition on the Bale Mountains (2011) - Zoologische ...

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Assemblage 1 Assemblage 2 Assemblage 3 Assemblage 4 Assemblage 5<br />

Yellow-fr<strong>on</strong>ted Parrot Nyanza Swift<br />

Yellow-shouldered<br />

Widowbird<br />

Discussi<strong>on</strong><br />

Puff-back Shrike<br />

Rufous Chatere<br />

Scaly-throated Babler<br />

Scaly-throated<br />

H<strong>on</strong>eyguide<br />

Senegal Coucal<br />

Sharps Starling<br />

Silvery-cheeked<br />

Hornbill<br />

Tacazze Sunbird<br />

Tawny-flanked Prinia<br />

Tropical Boubou<br />

White-backed Black<br />

Tit<br />

White-cheeked Bee<br />

Eater<br />

Yellow-bellied<br />

Sunbird<br />

Determinati<strong>on</strong> of communities based <strong>on</strong> empirically justifiable <strong>the</strong>oretical c<strong>on</strong>cepts has fundamental<br />

value both for advancement of ecological and c<strong>on</strong>servati<strong>on</strong> sciences. This is so because community<br />

attributes such as species richness are c<strong>on</strong>sidered to be collective attributes of a group of similar<br />

species that resp<strong>on</strong>d similarly to ecological processes operating at various spatial and temporal<br />

scales (MacArthur 1971; Whittaker 1975; Diam<strong>on</strong>d 1975; Holmes et al. 1979; Wiens 1989; Weihir<br />

and Kedy 2001; Wils<strong>on</strong> 2001; Krebs 2000). But measurement of such attributes of any group or<br />

tax<strong>on</strong> in a given landscape is a tricky c<strong>on</strong>cept. This requires <strong>on</strong>e to follow a procedure to identify a<br />

biological community with evident reflecti<strong>on</strong> of <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>oretical premises that define such an entity<br />

as a naturally relevant phenomen<strong>on</strong>.<br />

Evaluati<strong>on</strong> of empirical data in community ecology begins by defining a species pool<br />

for a community under investigati<strong>on</strong>. For an assemblage of organisms such as birds, community<br />

ecologists ei<strong>the</strong>r use an exhaustive list of a given area of acceptable spatial scale as <strong>the</strong> species pool<br />

<strong>on</strong> which site based community evaluati<strong>on</strong>s are undertaken (Keddy 1992). This may result in a list<br />

that includes species pairs that may not qualify to be in <strong>the</strong> same community if <strong>the</strong> fundamental<br />

<strong>the</strong>oretical principles of community ecology were to be applied. A species pool may be defined at<br />

a regi<strong>on</strong>al or even c<strong>on</strong>tinental scale as far as valid historical relati<strong>on</strong>ships <strong>on</strong> which <strong>the</strong> c<strong>on</strong>cept of<br />

community ecology is based are established (Ceuto et al. 1999). This is in additi<strong>on</strong> to <strong>the</strong> applicati<strong>on</strong><br />

<str<strong>on</strong>g>Walia</str<strong>on</strong>g>-<str<strong>on</strong>g>Special</str<strong>on</strong>g> <str<strong>on</strong>g>Editi<strong>on</strong></str<strong>on</strong>g> <strong>on</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Bale</strong> <strong>Mountains</strong> 23

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