Disturbance-resistant residents recolonize bare patches before new recruits arrive.

Evidence

Aggregations of predators or intense wave action do not always clear an open space completely. Small depressions in the surface may provide protection for whole organisms (see, e.g., Connell, 1961b; Keough and Downes, 1982) or small remnants of colonies (see, e.g., Kay, 1980; Ayling, 1983b). … Karlson (1980) showed that Hydractinia and Xestospongia are very resistant to grazing by the urchin Arbacia punctata, whereas other species were removed completely from the substratum. These species were able to become very abundant because they were the first species to recover from intense grazing; they quickly regrew into the bare space before other species could recruit. — S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance and…, 950