The role of disturbance in community ecology has been studied extensively and is thought to free resources and reset successional sequences at the local scale and create heterogeneity at the regional scale. Most studies have investigated effects on either the disturbed patch or on the entire community, but have generally ignored any effect of or on the community surrounding disturbed patches. We used marine fouling communities to examine the effect of a surrounding community on species abundance within a disturbed patch and the effect of a disturbance on species abudance in the surrounding community. We varied both the magnitude and pattern of disturbance on experimental settlement plates. Settlement plates were dominated by a non-native bryozoan, which may have established because of the large amount of initial space available on plates. Percent cover of each species within the patch were affected by the surrounding community, confirming previous studies' predictions about edge effects from the surrounding community on dynamics within a patch. Disturbance resulted in lower percent cover in the surrounding community, but there were no differences between magnitudes or spatial patterns of disturbance. Disturbance lowered population growth rates in the surrounding community, potentially by altering the abiotic environment or species interactions. Following disturbance, the recovery of species within a patch may be affected by species in the surrounding community, but the effects of a disturbance can extend beyond the patch and alter abundances in the surrounding community. The dependence of patch dynamics on the surrounding community and the extended effects of disturbance on the surrounding community, suggest an important feedback of disturbance on patch dynamics indirectly via the surrounding community.

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超越补丁：干扰影响周围社区的物种丰度

干扰在群落生态中的作用已被广泛研究，并被认为可以在局部尺度上释放资源和重置演替序列，并在区域尺度上创造异质性。大多数研究调查了对受干扰斑块或整个群落的影响，但通常忽略了对受干扰斑块周围群落的任何影响。我们使用海洋污染群落来检查周围群落对受干扰斑块内物种丰度的影响以及干扰对周围群落中物种丰富度的影响。我们改变了实验沉降板上扰动的幅度和模式。定居板块主要由非本地苔藓动物主导，这可能是因为板块上有大量可用的初始空间。斑块内每个物种的覆盖百分比受周围群落的影响，证实了先前研究对周围群落对斑块内动态边缘影响的预测。干扰导致周围社区的覆盖率较低，但干扰的大小或空间模式之间没有差异。干扰降低了周围社区的人口增长率，这可能是通过改变非生物环境或物种相互作用来实现的。扰动后，斑块内物种的恢复可能会受到周围群落物种的影响，但扰动的影响可能超出斑块并改变周围群落的丰度。