| This paper reviews recent knowledge about the functional roles that herbivores have in intertidal communities in Chile. Specifically, I review field and laboratory studies dealing with the food preferences of herbivores, the responses of algae to herbivore attacks and reports of negative and positive functional effects of herbivores on algal populations and communities. Most herbivores studied are characterized as generalist species. Green ephemeral and a few corticated algae dominate diets, while all species considered ingest larvae and post-metamorphic stages of invertebrates challenging classical characterizations of the herbivore guild. Functional redundancy and complementarity within the herbivore guild is discussed in relation to both quantitative... |
