Gaines Steven, Brown Stephen, Roughgarden Jonathan
Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, 93950, Pacific Grove, CA, USA.
Oecologia. 1985 Sep;67(2):267-272. doi: 10.1007/BF00384297.
Settlement rates of the high intertidal barnacle, Balanus glandula, were monitored at three sites in the rocky intertidal zone in Central California simultaneously with measurements of larval concentrations in the adjacent water column. In both 1983 and 1984, settlement rates onto vacant substrate differed among the sites by nearly two orders of magnitude. For all sampling dates, this spatial variation in settlement mirrored the spatial distribution of Balanus glandula cyprid concentration in the water column. A perfect rank correlation was found between cyprid concentrations near a site and subsequent settlement. A noteworthy observation was that the sites switched rank in their settlement rates from 1983 to 1984. This change in settlement rankings matched a switch in rankings for cyprid concentrations.Settlement itself appears to be an important cause of the spatial pattern of cyprid concentrations. Comparing the rates of settlement to estimates of the number of cyprids available at a site suggests that settlement causes a large drain on the cyprid population as a water mass passes over successive sites. No consistent spatial patterns were found in the distribution of other major plankton groups (calanoid copepods) that are similar in size to Balanus cyprids but do not settle.The large differences in settlement rates among these sites were previously shown to be a leading cause of large differences in the structure of benthic barnacle populations. The close correspondence shown here between these large differences in settlement and differences in larval concentrations suggests that nearshore oceanic processes affecting larval arrival contribute to the control of benthic community structure.
在加利福尼亚中部岩石潮间带的三个地点，对高潮间带藤壶Balanus glandula的附着率进行了监测，同时测量了相邻水柱中的幼虫浓度。在1983年和1984年，空底物上的附着率在不同地点之间相差近两个数量级。在所有采样日期，这种附着的空间变化反映了水柱中Balanus glandula金星幼虫浓度的空间分布。在一个地点附近的金星幼虫浓度与随后的附着之间发现了完全的等级相关性。一个值得注意的观察结果是，这些地点在1983年至1984年期间附着率的排名发生了变化。这种附着排名的变化与金星幼虫浓度排名的变化相匹配。附着本身似乎是金星幼虫浓度空间格局的一个重要原因。将附着率与一个地点可获得的金星幼虫数量估计值进行比较表明，当水体经过连续的地点时，附着会导致金星幼虫种群大量减少。在其他主要浮游生物群体（哲水蚤）的分布中没有发现一致的空间格局，这些浮游生物群体的大小与Balanus金星幼虫相似，但不会附着。这些地点之间附着率的巨大差异先前被证明是底栖藤壶种群结构巨大差异的主要原因。这里所示的附着的这些巨大差异与幼虫浓度差异之间的密切对应表明，影响幼虫到达的近岸海洋过程有助于控制底栖群落结构。
