Topographic complexity and landscape temperature patterns create a dynamic habitat structure on a rocky intertidal shore

Abstract

Habitat complexity is a fundamental driver of ecosystem structure and function. Rocky intertidal shores are the classic model system for investi - gating theoretical and mechanistic models of habitat complexity, because the structural topography is largely biologically independent and stable over time. In the present study, we investigate how static (topographic complexity and heterogeneity) and dynamic (temperature landscape) components of habitat structure influence the abundance and body-size distribution of in - vertebrates on a rocky shore. Using a novel approach that included high-resolution 3D fractal surface and temperature measurements, we show that topographic complexity, temperature landscape and habitat heterogeneity had largely independent effects on species abundance and body size. Invertebrate abundance was associated with temperature landscape in 7 of 11 species, while variation in body-size was mostly driven by fractal topography in 7 of 10 species. Overall, the body size?abundance relationship was not influenced by habitat structure, indicating that the effects of habitat structure on body size and abundance were largely independent. The results illustrate the value of combining measures of static and dynamic habitat structure to explain and predict biological patterns on rocky shores. © Inter-Research 2011.