Abstract
Reproduction and recruitment are key processes that replenish marine populations. Here we use the Palau archipelago, in the western Pacific Ocean, as a case study to examine scales of connectivity and to determine whether an oceanographic model, incorporating the complex reef architecture, is a useful predictor of coral recruitment. We tested the hypothesis that the reefs with the highest retention also had the highest densities of juvenile coral density from 80 field sites. Field comparisons showed a significant correlation between the densities of juvenile Acropora colonies and total larval recruitment derived from the model (i.e., calculated as the sum of the densities of larvae that self-seeded and recruited from the other reefs in the archipelago). Long-distance larval imports may be too infrequent to sustain coral populations, but are critical for recovery in times of extreme local stress.
Highlights
Marine connectivity is defined as the sharing of a gene pool through the process of larval dispersal and settlement
Fast and slow monthly mean currents occurred as events that were independent of the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI)
There was no significant correlation between the SOI and the monthly averaged currents off Palau (Figure 4)
Summary
Marine connectivity is defined as the sharing of a gene pool through the process of larval dispersal and settlement. Coral-reef studies suggested that larval exchange among coral reefs occurred at large, regional scales [3,4]. More recent oceanographic models for the Caribbean and elsewhere have suggested that larval connectivity is unlikely, or rare, at scales of hundreds of kilometers or more [2]. In support of the model outputs, recent genetic studies suggest that most larval exchange is local, at the scale of 1–10 km [5,6,7,8]. We use Palau (Figure 1) as a case study to examine local scales of larval connectivity, to determine whether coral recruitment was predictable, both through self-seeding and connectivity, and to discuss the implications of the results in the context of maintaining reef resilience
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