PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 69: Marine Ecology: Habitat; Communities
Tuesday, August 9, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 522 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Canopy-understorey associations in kelp forests across temperate Australia: Complexity and consistency from local to regional scales.

Irving, Andrew^*,1, Connell, Sean¹, Gillanders, Bronwyn¹, ¹ Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

ABSTRACT- Knowledge of the spatial generality of ecological patterns can be constrained because research efforts are often focused toward understanding variability at local scales (i.e. ≤1-10 km). We tested for consistency in the magnitude and direction of kelp canopy-understorey associations among multiple spatial scales (sites 1-10 km apart, locations 100′s km apart, and regions 1000′s km apart) across the temperate coastline of Australia. Associations for the major groups of understorey algae that characterize benthos (i.e. encrusting coralline algae, articulated coralline algae and turfs of filamentous algae) were largely consistent among sites and locations within regions. Among regions, however, patterns observed in eastern Australia were often reversed to those in western and southern Australia. Prominent inconsistencies arising from comparisons between single, local-scale studies done in eastern vs southern/western Australia suggest overwhelming variation at local scales, and reinforce the idea that few generalizations are possible beyond scales larger than a few kilometres. Our data suggest that such conclusions may be misguided given the large distinction in the ecology of these regions. Insight from research done at local scales within any particular region must be carefully evaluated before being extended to other regions of temperate Australia.

Key words: scale, generality, algae, subtidal