Abstract
In most hard substrate environments, space is a limiting resource for sessile organisms. Competition for space is often high and is a structuring force within the community. In the Beaufort Sea’s Boulder Patch, crustose coralline red algae are major space occupiers. This research determined if coralline algae were competitively dominant over other sessile organisms. To test this hypothesis, overgrowth was documented in terms of “winners” and “losers” on the contact borders between different species. Crustose corallines occurred in over 80% of the observed interactions but were only winners in approximately half of them. Most frequently, bryozoans, tunicates, and sponges were superior competitors over crustose corallines, while at the same time these invertebrate groups were among the least abundant space occupiers.
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Acknowledgments
We thank the Dunton Brothers and BP (particularly everyone at Endicott Production Island) for logistical support. We also thank our field assistants: C Debenham, N Harman, and C Wyatt. Helpful comments on a previous draft of this manuscript were provided by C. Belben, B. Daly, C. Debenham, A. Dubois, N. Harman, J. Markis, and T. Spurkland. This project was partially funded by the Coastal Marine Institute.
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Konar, B., Iken, K. Competitive dominance among sessile marine organisms in a high Arctic boulder community. Polar Biol 29, 61–64 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0055-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-005-0055-8