ABSTRACT
Historically, studies on the effects of sedimentation on rocky coast organisms have focused on reports of lists of species from areas naturally affected by sediments, or more rarely on examinations of life histories and structural adaptations of single species or groups of species. A consistent body of literature has reported observations on species that tend to bind and trap sediments but quantitative data have been scarce. In the last two decades quantitative observations on responses of individual species or assemblages to sedimentation have become relatively more frequent, probably in response to the increasing concern for the trend of enhanced sediment loads to coastal areas. These studies have sometimes been supported by laboratory experiments. However, it is only recently that systematic attempts have been made to investigate experimentally, both in the field and in the laboratory, the causal mechanisms by which sediments may affect rocky coast organisms. In this review an attempt is made to summarise the major findings from this considerable body of literature, and analyse whether observations stimulating the hypothesis that sediments have an important ecological role on rocky coasts are supported by experimental evidence.
