Abstract
The influence of the ocean currents over marine population connectivity is pivotal in territory planning since they should be considered in marine protected areas (MPA’s) design and its implementation, marine spatial planning strategies, restoration plans, among others. Their influence is also vital to broadening the relationship knowledge between oceanographic drivers and ecosystems configuration. However, and despite their importance, knowledge of ocean currents and its role in corals connectivity is poorly know at the Seaflower Marine Reserve, an area that harbours the third large true barrier reef in the world and that was declared as Biosphere Reserve in 2000. To fill-in this gap, here we characterized larvae transport patterns associated to the surface currents that lead connectivity at the Reserve.To achieve this aim, we simulated the advection of buoyant coral larvae of \textit{Acropora Palmata}, sp during nine spawning events. Larval dispersal patterns were obtained through the offline coupling of a high spatiotemporal resolution hydrodynamic field and a biophysical lagrangian model for particle dispersion. The ocean currents fields were generated through a Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS) adequately configured for the domain. Larvae dispersion was carried out throughout an Individual-Based Model (Ichthyop). Results show that there are heterogeneous connectivity patterns during the spawning events at season and inter-annual scales. This behaviour seems to be associated with the high spatiotemporal dynamic variability in the region, such as the Caribbean Current bifurcation close to the Nicaraguan Rise, the intrusion-formation of mesoscale or sub-mesoscale eddies, and the semi-permanent presence of the Panama-Colombia Gyre. We also found that Serranilla, Providencia, Quitasueno and Serrana acts as sinks. In contrast, the northernmost reefs, Serranilla, B.Alicia, and B.Nuevo, seems to be the most important larvae source, highlighting the need of the incorporation of these areas in the current MPA zonification, that could lead to the improvement of the MPA effectiveness. Findings also suggest the possibility to implement an MPA network between Jamaica and Colombia that could allow the populations to be more resilient to environmental changes and less prone to local extinctions.
Highlights
The Seaflower Biosphere Reserve (SFBR) is located at the southwestern side of the Caribbean Sea and has an area of 180,000 km2, one-third of which (65,000 km2) is part of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) declared by the Colombian government in 2005
According to model results and in agreement with available satellite data, there is a semi-permanent cyclonic gyre located in the southwestern of the region, known as the Panama-Colombia Gyre (PCG)
The patterns described for the Caribbean Current (CC) and the PanamaColombia Gyre (PCG) concur with previous findings reported by Andrade (2000, 2001), who reported a dominant CC with an effect in the upper 700 m, high mesoscale variability associated with eddies entering the region through the Antilles Islands, and an intense cyclonic gyre (PCG)
Summary
The Seaflower Biosphere Reserve (SFBR) is located at the southwestern side of the Caribbean Sea and has an area of 180,000 km, one-third of which (65,000 km2) is part of the Marine Protected Area (MPA) declared by the Colombian government in 2005. The SFBR system comprises two oceanic islands (San Andrés y Providencia) and a series of atolls and banks (Quitasueño, Serrana, Roncador, Serranilla, Albuquerque, Bajo Nuevo, Bajo Alicia, and Bolívar). Those geoforms are characterized by their associated ecosystems, which include mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs. The SFBR hosts ∼77% from the total Colombian reef area and the largest and the most productive open-ocean coral reefs in the Caribbean (Díaz et al, 2000; CORALINAINVEMAR, 2012). According to Prato and Rixcie (2015), the economic value of these coral reefs is between USD 270,900 and USD 353,000 million per year, i.e., they correspond to ∼70% of the total contribution attributed to the Colombian Caribbean marine territory. The importance of the coral reefs is economic; the SFBR hosts high biodiversity and contributes to shoreline protection (Prato and Rixcie, 2015)
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