The Role of Recruitment Dynamics in Rocky Shore and Coral Reef Fish Communities

Publisher Summary This chapter evaluates evidence that recruitment dynamics of component species can exert a strong effect on processes at a community level. The chapter first defines settlement and recruitment, and discusses the uses and misuses of these terms in the current literature. Next, it evaluates evidence that rocky intertidal and coral reef fish species can indeed be considered open. Following this, the chapter reviews the dynamics of recruitment, highlighting the differences and similarities between the systems. The consequences of these recruitment patterns to population and community structure, by drawing empirical examples and summarizing existing conceptual models are discussed. Finally, these models and new insights are synthesized into composite models, and predictions and tests stemming from them are suggested. The chapter concludes by addressing the practical or management implications of recruitment and by recommending future research directions. Furthermore, the goal is to draw the attention of workers in other fields to significant findings in these systems, and to promote exchange of ideas between rocky intertidal and coral reef fish researchers.