Community assembly can affect species coexistence through mechanisms that range from stochastic processes (e.g., demographic variability, dispersal) through deterministic interactions. In this study, we investigated how offshore benthic hardbottom communities varied among five different sites along a depth gradient (15-40m) and through time (2 years) in Onslow Bay, North Carolina, to determine how stochastic and deterministic processes affected the seasonal development of the community.
Results/Conclusions
We found that all five sites converged on a similar composition in winter and diverged during the growing season. Community composition was determined primarily by deterministic interactions. Our results suggest that there are constraints on community membership within this area especially caused by depth and distance from shore / proximity to the Gulf Stream and composition is not random. The differences between the community composition of the sites we observed may be maintained by limited dispersal among the hardbottom habitat islands.