Recruitment Dynamics in Complex Life Cycles

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 241; no. 4872; pp. 1460 - 1466
• Main Authors: Roughgarden, Jonathan, Gaines, Steven, Possingham, Hugh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Legacy CDMS The American Association for the Advancement of Science 16-09-1988; American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Aquatic habitats; Barnacles; Biological and medical sciences; Biotic communities; Cirripedia; Coastal currents; Coastal ecology; Coasts; Demecology; Ecology; Ecosystem; Environmental aspects; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Larva; Larvae; Life cycle; Marine; Marine Biology; Marine ecology; Models, Biological; Oceanography; Oceans; Pacific Ocean; Perspective in Ecology; Plankton; Population biology; Population Dynamics; Protozoa. Invertebrata; Sea water; Space life sciences; Synecology; Thoracica - growth & development; Upwelling water; Pacific Ocean; Crustacea; Marine environment; Intertidal zone; Arthropoda; Population recruitment; Cirripedia; Environmental factor; Population dynamics; Review; Invertebrata; Intertidal hard substrate; NASA Discipline Exobiology; NASA Program Exobiology; NASA Discipline Number 52-20; Non-NASA Center
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.11538249

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.