DOI: 10.5061/dryad.72p9f
title: Data from: Broad-scale geographic variation in the organization of rocky intertidal communities in the Gulf of Maine

description: A major challenge facing ecology is to better understand how large-scale
 processes modify local scale processes to shape the organization of
 ecological communities. Although the results of ecological experiments are
 repeatable on local scales, different results often emerge across broad
 scales, which can hinder the development of general predictions that apply
 across the geographical range of a community. Numerous studies in the
 southern Gulf of Maine have shaped our understanding of community
 organization and dynamics on New England rocky intertidal shores, where
 consumers strongly control recovery from disturbance on sheltered shores
 and high invertebrate recruitment and competition for space dictate
 recovery on wave-exposed shores. It is unclear, however, whether the
 effects of consumers and recruitment variation on resulting community
 organization in this region apply more broadly to rocky intertidal
 habitats throughout the Gulf. We characterized variation in rocky
 intertidal community structure at 34 sites throughout the Gulf of Maine
 and experimentally examined the influence of consumers (present, absent)
 and wave energy (wave-exposed, sheltered) on community recovery from
 disturbance in the northern and southern Gulf. Our results reinforced
 previous work in the southern Gulf because consumers dictated the recovery
 of fucoid algae and mussels on sheltered shores, whereas high barnacle and
 mussel recruitment and competition for space shaped recovery on
 wave-exposed shores. However, on sheltered shores in the northern Gulf,
 neither consumers nor barnacle and mussel recruitment impacted recovery,
 which was dominated by fucoid algae. Moreover, recovery on wave-exposed
 shores in the northern Gulf was quite distinct from that observed in the
 southern Gulf: barnacle and mussel recruitment was negligible and fucoid
 algae dominated recovery including the long-term establishment of
 Ascophyllum nodosum, which is largely absent from wave-exposed shores in
 the southern Gulf. Thus, distinct community types emerged in the northern
 and southern Gulf despite their sharing many of the same species. These
 patterns likely emerged because of regional differences in coastal
 oceanography that dictate the recruitment of barnacles and mussels. Hence,
 increased attention to regional factors should provide key insight into
 how rocky shore communities are organized in the Gulf of Maine and
 elsewhere.
description: Fig.2.3.4.Tab.1.App.B.C.Mature.Comms.xlsxThese data are were used to generate Figures 2, 3 and 4 (and the analyses in Table 1 and Appendices B and C), which describe mature, extant communities on wave-exposed and sheltered rocky intertidal shores in the Gulf of Maine.Fig.5.App.D.Consumer.DensThese data were used to generate Figure 5 (and the analyses in Appendix D), which portray consumer densities on wave-exposed and sheltered rocky intertidal shores in the Gulf of Maine.Fig.5.6.App.D.Consumer.Dens.xlsxFig.6.8.Tab.2.App.E.Manip.RecovThese data were used to generate Figures 6 and 8 (and the analyses in Table 2 and Appendix E), which portray species recovery after disturbance in the presence and absence of consumers on wave-exposed (Fig. 6) and sheltered (Fig. 8) rocky intertidal shores in the Gulf of Maine.Fig.7.App.F.Barn.RecruitThese data were used to generate Figure 7 (and the analyses in Appendix F), which portrays barnacle recruitment on wave-exposed and sheltered rocky intertidal shores in the Gulf of Maine.Fig.9.App.G.Asco.RecovThese data were used to generate Figure 9 (and the analyses in Appendix G), which portray long-term Ascophyllum nodosum recovery on wave-exposed and sheltered rocky intertidal shores in the Gulf of Maine.