Effects of early recruits on temperate sessile marine community composition depend on other species recruiting at the time.

In many environments recruitment of dispersive propagules (e.g. seeds, spores and larvae) can vary from situations when particular taxa recruit in relative isolation to times when they recruit simultaneously with other, functionally quite different taxa.

Contrasting effects of variable species recruitment on marine sessile communities.

The species composition, density, and frequency of recruitment into any given habitat are highly variable in most biological systems that rely on dispersive propagules (larvae, seeds, spores, etc.). There are few direct experimental studies of how recruitment variation between single species influences the composition and assembly of whole communities in many of these systems.

Effects of pulse versus steady recruitment on sessile marine communities.

Variation in patterns of propagule establishment (recruitment) has important effects on population dynamics and the structure of some communities. Most experimental studies have varied recruitment by changing the nature of a single event early in community development, but recruitment can also vary from steady rates of arrival to highly episodic 'pulse' events, causing differences in the temporal spacing of individuals recruiting into patches. We examined whether two different temporal patterns of recruitment of sessile invertebrates affected temperate marine communities in southeastern Australia in two experiments that were run at different times at the same site and that manipulated several different species.