| Coastal marine communities are structured by a complex interplay between environmental forcing and biological dynamics. Biotic and abiotic components of marine communities typically exhibit spatial and temporal structure; for example, neither substrates nor organisms are distributed homogenously. Overlaid upon and interacting with these "intrinsic" scales of variation are a number of biological and physical processes (e.g., dispersal, reproduction, upwelling, wave disturbance) that are themselves characterized by spatial and temporal structure. Very often, the scales of interacting pattern and process are not congruent. In this dissertation, I examine the role of scale in the biophysical couplings that link pattern and process in marine benthic ecosystems. Specifically, I ask whether changes in the scales of environmental and biological variation have predictable effects on the spatial pattern and temporal dynamics of marine ecosystems, with a particular focus on temperate coastal upwelling zones. |
