Transport Between Palau and the Eastern Coral Triangle: Larval Connectivity or Near Misses

Abstract

AbstractPhysical connectivity by transport of larvae between different habitats plays a fundamental role in marine population dynamics and is often assessed using circulation models assuming that computed large‐scale connectivity describes the actual connectivity. This paper presents observations of drifters released into the Philippine Sea offshore of the western lagoon of Palau that were tracked as were first carried by the Mindanao Eddy toward Mindanao and other parts of the Celebes and Sulu Seas, where they were removed from the water. While following expected transport pathways for this region, our drifters remained at least several kilometers offshore of the various islands they passed by, suggesting that larvae moving similarly would have been too far offshore to recruit to nearshore reefs. Thus, estimates of connectivity made using large‐scale models must be taken as upper bounds to connectivity across ocean basins.