The benthic ecology and community structure in Lyttelton Harbour ...

73.
5.4 The continuum related to the communities
Mill s (1969) ref e r s 't 0 t 11. e ide a t hat c ommu n j ,~;. e s
are not objective, clearly defined .ecolog 1 units but
might be abstractions from continua of dIstribution. To
a degree this is dependent on the adoptiDD or otherwi~e
of the individualistic concept that was origina~ly
proposed in connection.with identification of plant
associations (Gleason, 1939). The individualistic
hypothesis abolishes hierarchies that are the basis of
community definitions.. In many biological fields thi.s
has been reg.arded as a renegade concept by workers \,r.,rho
have recognised discrete units. These they have combined
to form groups. The basis of the conse.rvatism has been
the need for classification. Krajina (1961) asserted
that the continuum cannot replace the classification ..
Every science has a classification of its subjects of
research and without classification there can be no science
of vegetation. Daubenmire (1966) admitted that therp
was a continuity of vegetation but supported the community
system with the statement that there m~st be a framework
for organizing, storing, and retrieving information.
He advocated a system that allowed maximum predictions
to be made about the unit.
This type of argument applies equally well to
the identification of marine continua or communities and
the same conflicb of interest have occurred. Lately,
however there has been an increase in the number of
workers postulating continua. These have tended to
be more common among workers investigating plankton
or micro fauna where boundaries of units are particularly
hard to fix (Wieser, 1960; Kilburn, 1961)~
The existence of a continuum in Lyttelton Harbour,