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Lack of general associations between intertidal assemblages and rock hardness
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Lack of general associations between intertidal assemblages and rock hardness

Nathan Janetzki, Kirsten Benkendorff and Peter G Fairweather
Austral Ecology, Vol.46(1), pp.111-125
02/2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/aec.12964
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Lack of general associations between intertidal assemblages and rock hardnessView
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Abstract

seashore platform rock type physical characteristics bioregion community ecology
Different assemblages of intertidal biota may be associated with the hardness of the rock type that comprises the seashore. However, very few published studies have investigated mobile and sessile assemblage differences between hardness classes. To remedy this, we investigated the physical attributes and biotic assemblages of 12 rock platforms across two bioregions, encompassing seven rock types categorised into either the soft (≤4 using Moh’s scale of scratch hardness) or hard (>4 on Moh’s scale) classes. Rock types from the soft versus hard classes differed physically, but the biotic assemblages showed few general differences between hardness classes. Instead, most biotic differences associated with rock hardness were specific to just one of the marine bioregions sampled, not both. Hardness‐related assemblage differences were only weakly‐to‐moderately correlated with hardness differences in mineralogy or microhabitat density. The detection of bioregion‐specific hardness differences for intertidal assemblages, rather than general hardness class trends, indicate that the type of rock comprising the seashore in each bioregion may be more strongly associated with the biotic patterns identified than hardness per se.

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