[Annual Colonization Experiment (ACE)] - Percent cover and density measurements of sessile and mobile intertidal species from an Annual Colonization Experiment (ACE) in the rocky intertidal zone, Oregon Coast from 2011 to 2023 (RAPID: Testing the rocky intertidal community consequences of the decimation of purple sea star populations along the Oregon coast by sea star wasting disease)

Experiment/Study abstract: We tested the effects of predation, competition and facilitation on the annual colonization of rocky intertidal invertebrates from 2011-2023 at 6 sites along the Oregon coast. Mid zone factorial experiments testing the interactive effects of predation (primarily by whelks), competition, and facilitation on colonizers of annually cleared plots in the mid zone at core sites (ACE = Annual Colonization Experiment).

The long-term goal was to determine if whelk-prey interactions varied with environmental change. Effects (interaction strengths) of each interaction were determined at the end of each experiment (fall of each year) by calculating the difference between cage controls and predator exclusion cages (predation effect, presumably by whelks in this mid-intertidal zone), exclusion cages with mussels removed after settlement (competition effect, primarily of mussels on barnacles), and exclusion cages with barnacles removed (facilitation effect of barnacles on mussels).