DENSITIES AND COVER DATA FOR INTERTIDAL ORGANISMS IN THE GULF OF MAINE, USA, FROM 2003 TO 2007

Abstract

Experimental clearings in macroalgal (Ascophyllum nodosum) stands were made in 1996 to determine if mussel beds and macroalgal stands on protected intertidal shores in New England represent alternative community states. Uncleared control plots and four sizes of circular clearings, which mimicked ice scour events, were established in A. nodosum stands at 12 sites on Swan's Island, Maine, USA. The purpose of this data set is to provide access to data on densities and percent cover in the 60 experimental plots from 2003 to 2007 and to update data from 1996 to 2002 that are already published in Ecological Archives. Data include densities of mussels (Mytilus edulis and Modiolus modiolus), an herbivorous limpet (Tectura testudinalis), herbivorous snails (Littorina littorea, Littorina obtusata), a predatory snail (Nucella lapillus), a barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides), and fucoid algae (Ascophyllum nodosum and Fucus vesiculosus), and percent cover by mussels, barnacles, fucoids, and other sessile organisms.