2013/04/23 by Thomas P. Adams, Dmitry Aleynik, Adams, Thomas P. +3
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies #FOS: Biological sciences #Marine and coastal plant biology #Marine and fisheries research #Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1304.6319
openalex publication_date 2013/04/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The dispersal stages of organisms with sessile adults must be able to select\nhabitats with suitable conditions for establishment and survival, and must also\nbe able to reach those locations. For marine planktonic larvae, movement due to\ncurrents is often orders of magnitude greater than movement due to swimming\nbehaviour, so transport is largely passive.\n Current patterns are determined by the interaction of geography with tidal\nforces, modified by meteorological conditions. These linkages impose an\narea-specific focus to connectivity studies. Yet, how geographical features and\nmeteorological forcing combine to produce specific current patterns and\nresultant connectivity among populations remains unclear.\n In this study, we followed tracks of generic particles driven by modelled\nhydrodynamic currents to investigate how connectivity between evenly spaced\nhabitat sites varies in relation to coastal topography. Larvae released from\nregions of high current velocity, open coastline and low local habitat\navailability travelled furthest but were less likely to disperse successfully.\nExtensive natal habitat in the vicinity of a site generally had a positive\nimpact on the number of larvae arriving, as did low current velocities.\nHowever, relationships between numbers of arriving larvae and local\ngeographical indices were complex, particularly at longer larval durations.\n Local geography alone explained up to 50% of the variance in success of\nlarvae released and around 10% of the variation in the number of larvae\narriving at each site, but coastline properties fall short of predicting\ndispersal measures for particular locations. The study shows that\nmeteorological variation and broad scale current patterns interact strongly\nwith local geography to determine connectivity in coastal areas.\n