Photosynthetic microbial biofilms are an important functional component of rocky intertidal habitats worldwide. The abundance of organisms within these films varies both seasonally and according to vertical emersion gradients. However, the effects of horizontal gradients of wave exposure, which have a key influence on macrobiotic assemblages, have received little attention. Here, we examine the...

The existence of ancient deep-water lakes provides an opportunity to study the independent adaptation of aquatic organisms to pelagic, benthic, and rocky shore habitats. With improving resolution of their phylogenetic relationships, the many cichlid fish species endemic to the African Great Lakes Malawi, Tanganyika, and Victoria provide a significant resource for the comparative study of such e...

The small honeycomb barnacle Chamaesipho tasmanica Foster and Anderson often forms continuous sheets covering the substratum at mid-shore levels of sheltered rocky shores but also occurs in sparse distributions on exposed shores, and on higher levels of sheltered shores, in south-eastern Australia. Larger barnacles are generally found in more exposed and higher areas. Effects of each site on ul...

Humans intensely use southern California rocky shores for recreational activities such as fishing, exploration, wallung, enjoyment of the out-of-doors, and educational field trips. People also collect intertidal organisms for consumption, fish bait, home aquariums, and other purposes. In Orange County, visitors concentrate their activities on a few rocky headlands and reefs. Many of these shore...

The limpet Patella vulgata L. is an important microphagous grazer on intertidal rocky shores of north-west Europe, occurring across the wave exposure gradient. Groups of P. vulgata were selected at mid-tide level of two exposed shores and two sheltered, fucoid dominated shores on the Isle of Man, British Isles, and manipulated to equivalent densities and population structure. The level of grazi...

Eutrophication can profoundly change rocky shore communities. These changes often cause the replacement of perennial, canopy-forming algae such as Fucus spp. with annual, bloom-forming algae such as Enteromorpha spp. Grazing, however, can counteract eutrophication by eliminating the annual algae’s susceptible recruits. We examine these generalizations across large scales. We use replicated ‘‘bi...

Tropical ectotherms are predicted to be especially vulnerable to climate change because their thermal tolerance limits generally lie close to current maximum air temperatures. This prediction derives primarily from studies on insects and lizards and remains untested for other taxa with contrasting ecologies. We studied the HCT (heat coma temperatures) and ULT (upper lethal temperatures) of 40 s...

BACKGROUND Understanding the factors that generate and maintain biodiversity is a central goal in ecology. While positive species interactions (i.e., facilitation) have historically been underemphasized in ecological research, they are increasingly recognized as playing important roles in the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity. Dominant habitat-forming species (foundation species) buffer...

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of cyclone Gonu on species diversity and abundance of gastropods in the Qeshm Island, northern Persian Gulf, on the occasion of the occurrence of super cyclonic and strongest reported storm- Gonu- during 1-4, June 2007 in the eastern Arabian Sea. Samples were collected before the Gonu storm (late May and early June 2007) and twice ...