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

Abstract

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. Differences in the identity and density of recruiting taxa can have important consequences on community structure, but it is still not clear how the effects of individual taxa on communities are modified when they recruit together with other species. Using an experimental approach we compared early development of a temperate marine sessile community after the recruitment of mixtures of botryllid ascidians and barnacles to that when barnacles or botryllid ascidians recruited alone. Communities exposed to recruitment of botryllid ascidians in isolation differed from those that received barnacles, a mixture of botryllids and barnacles or no recruitment in 2-week-old communities. These early differences were driven by higher abundances of the species that were present as initial recruits in experimental treatments. After 2 months communities also differed between barnacle and mixed recruitment treatments but not mixed and botryllid or botryllid and barnacle treatments. These differences were not directly due to differences in the abundances of our manipulated taxa but occurred because of two abundant arborescent bryozoans, Bugula dentata, which occupied more space in communities that initially received mixed recruitment than in those that received barnacle or no recruitment, and Zoobotryon verticillatum, which occupied more space in communities that initially received only barnacle recruitment than those that initially received botryllid or mixed recruitment. These effects did not persist, and communities did not differ after 6 months. These results suggest that, more generally, species may influence community dynamics differently when they recruit alongside other species than when they recruit in relative isolation.