Recruitment limitation of a deep benthic hard-bottom octocoral population in the Hawaiian Islands

Recruitment appears to be the major determinant of abundance and structure of an isolated, spatially confined deep-water rocky bottom octocoral community in the Hawaiian Islands. As opposed to some rocky intertidal communities, post-settlement factors such as competition for space, predation and physical disturbance are of less importance. Recruitment and mortality of the primary species studied, Corallium secundum Dana (pink coral) was found to be low, relatively constant and independent of population density. Constant recruitment in isolated habitats could be a consequence of long-lived larvae with good capability to postpone settlement. Recovery of species from man-induced disturbance in such environments may be a direct function of recruitment and year-class infilling.