Pre- and post-settlement events in benthic community dynamics Les événements de pré- et post-installation larvaire dans la dynamique des communautés benthiques

In all marine benthic environments, organism replacement depends on recruitment limitation, i.e. the impact of both preand post-settlement events on the success of recruitment. The relative contribution of preversus post-settlement processes in shaping adult populations has been extensively studied. Most analyses concluded that recruitment limitation is a strong determinant of adults’ density. The magnitude of its limitation depends on context, varies with species, and can be strongly modified by all the events preceding and following recruitment itself. A comparison of the outcome of recruitment limitation on hardand soft-bottom communities has often been neglected. The rules governing these two environments, in both the interand the subtidal, might be inferred only by comparing and possibly integrating softand hard-bottom ecologies. The highly variable situation that larvae face in the water column is followed by the variability linked to local features, influencing, in its turn, larval settlement and juvenile survival (post-settlement period). A better knowledge of these processes will be possible only by focusing on their relative importance in the two environments and with research on the brief but significant time of larval settlement. © 2002 Ifremer/CNRS/IRD/Éditions scientifiques et médicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.