Disturbance type and intensity combine to affect resilience of an intertidal community

Abstract

Differing disturbance agents may vary in the local spatial pattern of their effects, which may in turn influence the resilience of communities, particularly if ecologically important species are affected variably. Here, we investigated the effects of disturbance type on the ecologically important intertidal alga Hormosira banksii and its understory community at 2 sites in southeastern Australia. Replicate 60 × 40 cm plots containing dense H. banksii canopies were disturbed with 11 treatments that varied the severity and type of the disturbance, and included 0 and 100% removal controls, plus a factorial array of 3 disturbance types (cropped, clumped and haphazard removals) crossed with 3 seve..