Unimodal relationship between small-scale barnacle recruitment and the density of pre-existing barnacle adults.

ABSTRACT: Recruitment is a key demographic process for population persistence. This paper focuses on barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides) recruitment. In rocky intertidal habitats from the Gulf of St. Lawrence coast of Nova Scotia (Canada), ice scour is common during the winter. At the onset of intertidal barnacle recruitment in early May (after sea ice has fully melted), mostly only adult barnacles and bare substrate are visible at high elevations in wave-exposed habitats. We conducted a multiannual study to investigate if small-scale barnacle recruitment could be predicted from the density of pre-existing adult barnacles. In a year that exhibited a wide adult density range (ca. 0-130 individuals dm^-2), the relationship between adult density and recruit density (scaled to the availab

SUBMITTER: Scrosati RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5463980 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature