Data Paper. Data Paper

File List File is 300 records, not including header row, Ascii text, tab delimited. No compression scheme was used. Missing data denoted as "-999.9". Succession_sampling_03-07_data.txt Description Experimental clearings in macroalgal (<i>Ascophyllum nodosum</i>) stands were made in 1996 to determine if mussel beds and macroalgal stands on protected intertidal shores in New England represent alternative community states. Uncleared control plots and four sizes of circular clearings, which mimicked ice scour events, were established in <i>A. nodosum</i> stands at 12 sites on Swan’s Island, Maine, USA. The purpose of this data set is to provide access to data on densities and percent cover in the 60 experimental plots from 2003 to 2007 and to update data from 1996 to 2002 that are already published in <i>Ecological Archives</i>. Data include densities of mussels (<i>Mytilus edulis</i> and <i>Modiolus modiolus</i>), an herbivorous limpet (<i>Tectura testudinalis</i>), herbivorous snails (<i>Littorina littorea</i>, <i>Littorina obtusata</i>), a predatory snail (<i>Nucella lapillus</i>), a barnacle (<i>Semibalanus balanoides</i>), and fucoid algae (<i>Ascophyllum nodosum</i> and <i>Fucus</i> <i>vesiculosus</i>), and percent cover by mussels, barnacles, fucoids, and other sessile organisms. <i>Key words</i>: <i>alternative stable states; community ecology; Gulf of Maine; LTREB data; marine algae; marine invertebrates; mussels; rocky intertidal shores; succession</i>.