Development of methods to evaluate relative contribution of stabilizing and equalizing mechanisms in community dynamics.

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In general, communities contain large number of rare species. The core and occasional species hypothesis, a major explanation of such excess of rare species, is not yet rigorously tested empirically. I tested five predictions arising from the hypothesis for mid-intertidal sessile assemblages locating on steep rock slopes by partitioning all species into core species and occasional species basing on their response to tidal height and seasons. The results support all of the hypothesis predictions, emphasizing that the niche concept is the central in understanding the spatiotemporal patterns in species occurrence in the assemblages.