Relative effects of elevated grazing pressure and competition from a red algal turf on two post-settlement stages of Fucus evanescens C. Ag

In Nova Scotia, Canada, the lower shore of wave-exposed and semi-sheltered portions of the coast is dominated by a dense turf of the red alga Chondrus crispus C. Ag. The mid shore is dominated by three species of rockweed belonging to the genus Fucus, which are also physiologically competent in the low zone, but may be inhibited by pre-emptive competitive exclusion by red algal turf and/or increased grazing pressure from abundant mesoherbivores. A grazer assay showed that herbivore pressure is > 50% higher in the Chondrus zone than in the rockweed zone. Fucus can colonize the low shore only through microrecruits which develop from planktonic zygotes. A main objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that early post-settlement stages represent a critical phase for successful recruitment. We, therefore, tested the relative effects of competitive pressure from Chondrus and grazing on small (2 mm) and larger (6 cm) Fucus evanescens plants in a three-way factorial experiment. Red algal turf and grazers independently depressed F. evanescens growth, but only a combination of factors resulted in a significant weight loss in the rockweeds. The effect size of grazing was more than double that of competition from the turf. Small and larger individuals of F. evanescens were equally affected by grazing and competition. The results showed that colonization by rockweeds may only occur where there are gaps in the Chondrus canopy. We hypothesized that grazer effects may decrease with increasing gap size. However, a controlled experiment showed no differences in Fucus recruitment among the range of naturally occurring gap sizes. That is, larger gaps do not promote rockweed recruitment. In concordance with this observation, we found that grazer abundances were similar among gap sizes. Chondrus was shown to be highly resistant to intense physical and herbivore-induced disturbance. This combination ensures the persistence of a dense canopy which largely excludes rockweed recruitment from zygotes. Competitive dominance of Chondrus on the low shore is not obviously related to individual growth rates or canopy height. A positive correlation between growth rate and competitive ability may be expressed only in morphologically similar species which are likely to compete as germlings.