Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Succession and stability in two rocky intertidal communities on the central Oregon coast

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/6w924d966

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  • The stability of a limpet-dominated community was assessed in a experiment in which an consumer was temporarily removed. Compared to unmanipulated plots, the limpet-exclusion plots developed greater algal abundance and altered species composition of both algae and barnacles. The community was not perturbed beyond its capacity to recover, since the community structure of the limpet-removal plots converged on the structure of the unmanipulated plots after limpet reintroduction. Different components of the community recovered at different rates, depending on whether a species had a size-related escape from limpets. The length of the limpet-removal period did not affect community recovery. The mechanisms of succession were investigated in a community dominated by the barnacle Balanus glandula and the alga Pelvetiopsis limitata. Competition for space with Balanus excluded the barnacle, Chthamalus dalli, as succession proceeded. Chthamalus did not affect Balanus. Algal colonization was strongly facilitated by Balanus, but not Chthamalus. Algal recruitment to epoxy-filled barnacle tests indicated that facilitation resulted from barnacle tests altering the substrate, not from the activities of the living animal. Manipulations of barnacle and herbivore abundances demonstrated that facilitation was an mediated by limpets. Consumers decreased the rate of succession, supporting a model of how consumers affect the rate of succession as a function of both the model of succession and the successional status of the species consumed. Both gap size and position within a gap influenced algal cover, limpet density and species composition, but not total barnacle cover or the density and species composition of algal recruits. The results supported the prediction that the effects on succession of increasing gap size are similar to the effects of moving towards the center of a gap.
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