“…It is in this extreme environment assemblages of intertidal mussels are exposed to the limits of their temperature thresholds (Helmuth et al., 2006; Szathmary et al., 2009; Williams et al., 2008). For example, during periods of extreme low tides when the intertidal zone is exposed for several hours, algal cover provides protection from desiccation and other effects from environmental extremes to under‐story mussel communities (Prado & Castilla, 2006; Stachowicz et al., 2008; Storero et al., 2022; Valdivia, Aguilera, & Broitman, 2021; Valdivia, López, et al., 2021). Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that the presence of canopy‐forming algae influences the rates of recruitment and settlement of other algal species (Benedetti‐Cecchi et al., 1996), barnacles (Leonard, 1999), and potentially, marine mussels as well.…”