Recruitment Dynamics in Complex Life Cycles

Abstract

Organisms living in the marine rocky intertidal zone compete for space. This, together with predation, physical disruption, and differing species tolerances to physiological stress, explains the structure of the ecological communities at some sites. At other sites the supply of larvae is limiting, and events in the offshore waters, such as wind-driven upwelling, explain the composition of intertidal communities. Whether the community ecology at a site is governed by adult-adult interactions within the site, or by limitations to the supply of larvae reaching the site, is determined by the regional pattern of circulation in the coastal waters. Models combining larval circulation with adult interactions can potentially forecast population fluctuations. These findings illustrate how processes in different ecological habitats are coupled.

Movements of Marine Fish and Decapod Crustaceans: Process, Theory and Application

“…These life cycle changes are usually associated with temporally and spatially discrete phases of movement and resource use (Harden-Jones, 1968;Roughgarden et al, 1988;Wootton, 1990;Eckman, 1996). In the life histories of fish and decapod crustaceans, a wide variety of strategies and tactics has evolved, often exhibiting high phenotypic plasticity in response to complex abiotic and biotic patterns and processes, including human activity (Johannes, 1978;Morgan and Christy, 1994;Rochet, 2000).…”

“…As argued by Roughgarden et al (1988), "studies at only one of the habitats tell no more than half the story". Therefore, if information on animal movement is not available, the assumption of single habitat use should be considered carefully or rejected entirely.…”

“…Applying this reductionist approach to lifetime use of habitat by an animal would also make fieldwork more logistically feasible, whilst maintaining an organism-based perspective. Alternatively, for a more holistic approach, one would need to couple separate neighbourhoods or consider the whole life cycle (Roughgarden et al, 1988;Eckman, 1996) as a single spatio-temporal domain. The life-cycle neighbourhood would then be scaled using the spatial and temporal dimensions appropriate to the total trajectory of movement throughout the life cycle.…”

“…chlorophyll a, surface temperature, sea-surface height, surface roughness, ice) (Roughgarden et al, 1988). Polovina et al (1999) modelled the trajectory of larvae of the spiny lobster (Panulirus marginatus) in the Hawaiian Islands using data from space-borne satellites.…”

Context‐dependent functional dispersion across similar ranges of trait space covered by intertidal rocky shore communities

“…Then, niche complementarity should take a larger role in determining species occurrences and abundances, allowing more species to coexist in the less stressful environment (MacArthur & Levins, 1967). Regarding the horizontal variation in community structure, local and mesoscale factors such as productivity, wave exposure, and recruitment variability modulate species abundances and occurrences to lesser extent (Navarrete, Wieters, Broitman, & Castilla, 2005; Roughgarden, Gaines, & Possingham, 1988; Valdivia, Aguilera, Navarrete, & Broitman, 2015). For instance, high wave‐exposure can hamper the grazing activity of low‐intertidal gastropods and sea urchins, allowing for competitive exclusion by algae (e.g., Hawkins & Hartnoll, 1983; Underwood & Jernakoff, 1981, 1984).…”