Associate Professor Matt Bracken recently published findings of a six-year study in the journal Ecology.  Bracken and colleagues measured the effect that seaweed diversity has on invertebrates large and small in the rocky intertidal zones of northern California.

They found that greater diversity in algal communities resulted in greater diversity of invertebrates, but that smaller species retain a greater loyalty to particular host species of algae than larger ones that seem to care more about having abundant cover than what species is covering them.