Perturbation and Recovery Patterns of Starfish-Dominated Intertidal Assemblages in Chile, New Zealand, and Washington State

Abstract

When starfish are removed from small portions (< 63-m2 areas) of certain marine communities, mussels increase the percentage of space that they occupy. When compared to other studies in New Zealand and Wasington State new results from Chile indicate that none of these assemblages is stable when perturbed in this fashion. All attain a different state within relatively brief periods. When starfish were permitted to return, 2 different recovery patterns were observed. In Chile, the experimental site converged rapidly toward the undisturbed control; at the other sites, mussels too large to be eaten by starfish continued to dominate the space. The results indicate the importance of size escapes from predation for marine communities. Whether these persistent, but diminishing in spatial converage, stands of mussels are alternative stable states or not is dependent on the definition of stability employed.