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Coral Reef Arks: An In Situ Mesocosm and Toolkit for Assembling Reef Communities

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Published on: January 6, 2023

Competitive hierarchies in marine benthic communities.

James F Quinn¹

¹Department of Zoology, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, Washington, USA.

|March 18, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Sessile organisms in the low intertidal zone exhibit a competitive hierarchy, with few exceptions. This hierarchy influences community structure, particularly when dominant species are involved in competitive reversals.

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Area of Science:

Marine ecology
Community structure
Interspecific competition

Background:

Competitive hierarchies are established in mid-to-high intertidal zones, influencing benthic marine community dynamics.
Lower-ranking species often rely on predation or disturbance to avoid competitive exclusion.
Alternative models propose competitive networks, but evidence in intertidal zones is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine competitive displacement patterns by overgrowth in low intertidal sessile organism communities.
To determine if a competitive hierarchy exists for sessile organisms in the low intertidal zone.
To compare intertidal competition patterns with those observed in cryptic coral reef communities.

Main Methods:

Observation and analysis of overgrowth patterns in sessile invertebrate and algal communities.
Study sites located in the low intertidal zone of Washington state and Alaska.
Reanalysis of data from cryptic reef communities to assess competitive relationships.

Main Results:

Crustose invertebrates and algae in the low intertidal zone largely follow a competitive hierarchy.
Erect and solitary species display varied competitive abilities, but a strict hierarchy is not definitively established for them.
Few reversals from the hierarchy were observed, and those involving dominant species had a greater impact on community structure.

Conclusions:

A competitive hierarchy is a significant organizing principle in low intertidal sessile communities.
Departures from a strict hierarchy are ecologically important, especially when dominant species are involved.
Competitive networks are less evident in intertidal zones compared to cryptic coral reef communities.