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

9402690盖恩斯尽管人们普遍承认海洋过程会影响底栖动物群落，但很少有人以综合的方式关注这一问题。PI‘s之前的研究采取了预测性和实验性的方法来解释纳拉甘西特湾北部橡子藤壶Semibalanus balanoides的补充的空间和时间变化。在过去十年中，海湾藤壶补充数量的巨大年际变化中，约有80%是由海湾冲洗时间的年度变化解释的，该时间决定了幼虫从海湾滞留和出口的程度。这一更新项目将在其他河口测试先前发现的一般性和后果，并研究更多的分类群。只有对生物地理区域和广泛的分类群进行研究，才能揭示海洋过程与底栖生物组合的种群和群落动态之间的联系。该项目将使用新英格兰具有不同冲刷特征的重复海湾来研究海湾冲刷时间的空间和时间变化与常见海岸线物种补充之间的关系。产生补充变异的机制的普遍性是一个悬而未决的问题，但它对海洋群落的动态具有重要影响。随着对西北大西洋五个重要空间占有者的同时研究，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有一个普遍的了解。***

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. ***