I'm interested in your papers - ecology and conservation are my fields. You stated,
My last major one I am hopeful will win me long-term historical recognition, as a major contributor to the discovery of cascade effects, and food-chain dynamics, as the central theory of ecology.
Cascade effects, and the term trophic cascade I used in my previous post, were described by Jared Diamond in two papers in 1984:
Daimond, JM, 1984a "Historic extinctions: a Rosetta Stone for understanding prehistoric extinctions" in "Quaternary Extinctions" P.Martin and R.Klein, eds, ppg: 824-862 Uni Arizona Press (a great book! Highly recommended)
Diamond, JM, 1984b "'Normal' extinctions of isolated populations" in "Extinctions" MH Nitecki, ed ppg: 191-246 Uni Chicago Press
Diamond 1984a is probably the defining paper on the idea. That book is where I got my
Hibiscadelphus example. Although there have been a number of scientists who have contributed substantially to our understanding of the effect (see, for instance, Quinn JF, Harrison SP, 1988 "Effects of habitat fragmentation and isolation on species richness: evidence from biogeographic patterns" Oecologia, 75:132-140), a lot of the framework Diamond used was based on John Terborgh's work on Barro Colorado (where I got my other example). See especially Terborgh, J, 1974 "Preservation of natural diversity: The problem of extinction-prone species" BioScience 24:715-722, which discusses the role of rarity among other things that lead to extinction in small populations.
An even more extensive treatment of the cascade effect can be found in "Tropical Forest Remnants: Ecology, Management, and Conservation of Fragmented Communities" WF Laurance and RO Bierregaard, Jr., eds
1997, Uni Chicago Press - a must-read for any ecologist.
I'd be very interested in reading your paper if it's available. Could you give a citation?