The role of intraspecific trait variation in driving post-metamorphic survival: Implications for recruitment in open populations.

ABSTRACT: Most ecological studies attempting to understand causes of population dynamics and community structure disregard intraspecific trait variation. We quantified the importance of natural intra-cohort variation in body size and density of juveniles for recruitment of a sessile marine organism, the barnacle Semibalanus balanoides. Barnacles are representative of species organised in metapopulations, that is, as open local populations connected by larval dispersal. We tracked the individual growth and survival of a cohort of juvenile barnacles from two shores of North Wales. Barnacles settled as larvae in spring of 2002 on previously cleared rock. The density of these new recruits was experimentally manipulated in June and randomly selected individuals were monitored from June to October

SUBMITTER: Gimenez L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11301026 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature