Algal Communities of a Wave-Protected Intertidal Rocky Shore in Southern Chile

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a qualitative and quantitative description of protected rocky intertidal habitats subject to high tidal amplitudes. It discusses biotic and abiotic factors that affect the distribution and abundance patterns of macroalgae in these ecosystems. Wave-protected ecosystems with high tidal amplitudes have a very different structure from those of the intertidal systems existing along the Chilean coast. The high tidal amplitudes together with the wave-protected conditions explain that these intertidal ecosystems are exposed to air for longer periods and that the absence of wave splash additionally increases dessication effects. Experimental evidence indicates that both abiotic and biotic factors have important ecological consequences for the algal communities in these protected ecosystems; the herbivores have an effect on the abundance of Ulvoids but do not affect algal successional sequences.