Collaborative Research: Is Variable Retention of Larvae Nearshore a General Cause of Variable Recruitment

9402690盖纳斯虽然人们普遍承认海洋学过程影响底栖生物群落，但很少有人以综合的方式关注这一问题。PI先前的研究采用了预测和实验的方法来解释纳拉甘西特湾北部橡子藤壶（Semibalanus balanoides）招募的时空变化。过去十年来，湾内藤壶数量的年际变化，约有80%是由冲厕时间的年际变化所解释的，冲厕时间决定了幼虫在湾内滞留和出口的程度。这个更新项目将测试以前在其他河口发现的普遍性和后果，并检查更多的分类群。只有进行跨生物地理区域和广泛分类群的研究，才能揭示海洋学过程与底栖生物组合的种群和群落动态之间的联系。该项目将利用新英格兰地区具有不同冲刷特征的复制海湾，研究海湾冲刷时间的时空变化与常见岸线物种的补充之间的关系。产生招募变化的机制的普遍性是一个尚未解决的问题，但它对海洋群落的动态具有重要意义。随着对西北大西洋五个重要的空间占领者的同时研究，该项目将开始对水动力过程与底栖生物组合的种群和群落动态之间的联系产生一般的了解。＊＊＊

9402690 Gaines Although it is widely acknowledged that oceanographic processes influence benthic communities, little effort has focused on this issue in a synthetic way. Prior research by the PI's had taken a predictive and experimental approach to explaining spatial and temporal variation in the recruitment of the northern acorn barnacle, Semibalanus balanoides, in Narragansett Bay. About 80% of the large interannual variation in barnacle recruitment in the bay over the last decade is explained by annual variation in bay flushing times, which set the extent of retention and export of larvae from the bay. This renewal project will test the generality and consequences of the previous findings in other estuaries and examine additional taxa. Only by undertaking studies across biogeographic areas and a wide range of taxa will the linkages between oceanographic processes and the population and community dynamics of benthic assemblages be unraveled. The project will use replicated bays in New England with differing flushing characteristics to examine the relationship between spatial and temporal variation in bay flushing time and the recruitment of common shoreline species. The generality of mechanisms generating recruitment variation is an unresolved issue, yet it has important implications to the dynamics of marine communities. With simultaneous studies on five important space occupiers of the NW Atlantic, this project will begin to develop a general understanding of linkages between hydrodynamic processes and the populations and community dynamics of benthic assemblages. ***