抄録
The distribution and abundance of benthic animals and their relationship with tidal height, large-scale (10-100cm) rock-surface topography, and small-scale (0.1-5cm) rock-surface topography were studied in the Intertidal community of an exposed rocky shore in northern Japan. Both scales of rock-surface topography strongly affected the distribution and abundance of most sessile and mobile species. Species-specific use-patterns were observed in both scales of rock-surface topography. Tidal height affected the largecale topographic use patterns of benthic animals, but not the small-scale topographic patterns. Chthamalus challengeri had a wider niche breadth and smaller niche overlap of rocksurface topography than the competitively superior species Septif er virgatus and Mytilus trossulus. This suggests that niche partition contributes to species coexistence in intertidal habitats where predation and disturbance rarely play an important role in reducing competition.
