Community regulation: the relative importance of recruitment and predation intensity of an intertidal community dominant in a seascape context.

ABSTRACT: Predicting the strength and context-dependency of species interactions across multiple scales is a core area in ecology. This is especially challenging in the marine environment, where populations of most predators and prey are generally open, because of their pelagic larval phase, and recruitment of both is highly variable. In this study we use a comparative-experimental approach on small and large spatial scales to test the relationship between predation intensity and prey recruitment and their relative importance in shaping populations of a dominant rocky intertidal space occupier, mussels, in the context of seascape (availability of nearby subtidal reef habitat). Predation intensity on transplanted mussels was tested inside and outside cages and recruitment was measured with standard l

SUBMITTER: Rilov G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3162600 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature