Dynamics of a Pelagically Spawning Coral Reef Fish

这个项目探索了一种新的假说来解释在上层产卵的海鱼的交配模式。该假说指出，选择产卵地点和时间是为了提高受精率。总体而言，产卵期是生产的关键时期，也是收获的脆弱时期。重要的是要更多地了解它们的因果基础。彼得森博士和他的同事在蓝头鲸Thalassoma biasciatu的研究中发现，当地种群的交配时间差异很大，平均受精率低得令人惊讶，似乎受到礁石上的湍流和位置的影响，雄性释放的精子数量与交配的雌性的大小和繁殖力显著相关。该项目将进行三个相互关联的调查：(1)通过检查不同时间表的珊瑚礁上水分运动的几个指标与产卵时间之间的关系来确定交配的时间；(2)确定交配地点，以促进受精、卵离开珊瑚礁或两者兼而有之；以及(3)通过检查受精卵的数量如何随着雄性释放的精子数量的变化来研究受精动力学，这产生了关于雄性应该如何在产卵之间分配精子的具体预测。

This project explores a new hypothesis for explaining the patterns of mating in pelagically-spawning marine fish. The hypothesis states that spawning sites and times are selected to improve fertilization rates. In general, spawning periods represent critical times for production and vulnerable times for harvesting. It is important to know more about their causal basis. In the bluehead wrasse, Thalassoma bifasciatu, Dr. Petersen and colleagues found that the timing of mating varies dramatically between local populations, the mean fertilization rates were surprisingly low and appeared to be influenced by turbulence and location on the reef, and the number of sperm released by males correlated significantly with the size and fecundity of the female with whom they are mating. This project will conduct three interrelated investigations: (1) determine timing of mating by examining the relationships between several measures of water movement and the time of spawning on reefs with different schedules; (2) locate mating sites that facilitate fertilization, egg transport off the reef, or both; and (3) investigate fertilization dynamics by examining how the number of eggs fertilized varies with the number of sperm released by the male, which generates specific predictions of how males should allocate sperm among spawns.