Wave energy and intertidal productivity

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In the northeastern Pacific, intertidial zones of the most wave-beaten shores receive more energy from breaking waves than from the sun. Despite severe mortality from winter storms, communities at some wave-beaten sites produce an extraordinary quantity of dry matter per unit area of shore per year. At wave-beaten sites of Tatoosh Island, WA [Washington, USA], sea palms, Postelsia palmaeformis, can produce > 10 kg of dry matter, or 1.5 .times. 108 J, per m2 in a good year. Extraordinarily productive organisms such as Postelsia are restricted to wave-beaten sites. Intertidial organisms cannot transform wave energy into chemical energy, as photosynthetic plants transform solar energy, nor can intertidial organisms "harness" wave energy. Nonetheless, wave energy enhances the productivity of intertidial organisms. On exposed shores, waves increase the capacity of resident algae to acquire nutrients and use sunlight, augment the competitive ability to productive organisms, and protect intertidial residents by knocking away their enemies or preventing them from feeding.