Figure 18.23 Alternative stable states. Intertidal communities of Maine are commonly dominated by A. nodosum algae. When researchers scoured areas of different sizes in 1996 and then monitored the colonization of the scoured areas, they found that the largest scoured areas switched to alternative stable states. In Toothacker Cove, a site with a southern exposure, the communities became dominated by F. vesiculosus algae. In Mackerel Cove, a site with a northern exposure, the communities became dominated by barnacles.

Data from P. S. Petraitis and S. R. Dudgeon, Divergent succession and implications for alternative states on rocky intertidal shores, Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 326 (2005): 14–26.