Supply-side ecology and benthic marine assemblages

A J Underwood; P G Fairweather

doi:10.1016/0169-5347(89)90008-6

Supply-side ecology and benthic marine assemblages

Trends Ecol Evol. 1989 Jan;4(1):16-20. doi: 10.1016/0169-5347(89)90008-6.

Authors

A J Underwood¹, P G Fairweather

Affiliation

¹ Institute of Marine Ecology, Zoology Building, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

PMID: 21227303
DOI: 10.1016/0169-5347(89)90008-6

Abstract

Many marine invertebrates have a planktonic stage of their life history during which widespread dispersal and much mortality occur. The numbers surviving to recruit into habitats occupied by adults are therefore very variable in time and space. Models for the structure and dynamics of benthic assemblages tend to focus on processes causing death - often assuming consistent arrivals of recruits. Supply-side ecology is a newly fashionable term to describe recent interest in the long-realized consequences of variations in recruitment. Such variations have important influences on theory and empirical research in these assemblages.