Large-Scale Experimental Test of Recruitment Limitation in Marine Fish

该项目将以前所未有的细节，在大空间尺度（珊瑚礁直径100米）和大时间尺度（整整一代人）上测试补充限制假说。初步工作表明，双色雀鲷（Stegastes partitus，Pomacentridae），具有约3年的世代时间，是一个极好的物种，在巴哈马群岛的Lee Stocking岛的加勒比海洋研究中心，是一个理想的研究区域。招募限制假说将通过两种方式进行测试：（1）通过长期监测四个大型珊瑚礁的人口增长率，这些珊瑚礁自然会经历截然不同的幼虫定居率，以及（2）通过实验操作这些网站的幼虫定居率。低沉降的场地（无论是自然沉降还是实验诱导沉降）应证实这一假设，正如过去2年的基线人口监测所表明的那样。详细的人口统计数据将用于构建基于经验的规模结构开放人口模型。这些模型的弹性分析将确定不同的人口变化率在驱动当地人口size.The相结合的观察，实验和药理学理论的方法，这项研究将提供一个新的大规模测试的招聘限制假说的海洋鱼类的相对重要性。此外，该项目还可以提供关于人类引起的全球气候变化对珊瑚礁影响的见解。基线人口监测发现，与它们栖息的珊瑚白化和死亡相关的双色雀鲷种群在整个区域范围内出现了3年的下降。该项目将确定这种人口下降是否是一个长期的、多代的趋势。

This project will test the recruitment limitation hypothesis in unprecedented detail and at both large spatial scales (reefs 100's of meters in diameter) and large temporal scales (an entire generation). Preliminary work has shown that the bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus, Pomacentridae), having a generation time of about 3 years, is a superb species for this test, and that the Caribbean Marine Research Center at Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas, is an ideal study area. The recruitment limitation hypothesis will be tested in two ways: (1) by long-term monitoring of demographic rates at four large reefs that naturally undergo vastly different rates of larval settlement, and (2) by experimental manipulations of rates of larval settlement to these sites. Sites with low settlement-either natural or experimentally induced-should corroborate the hypothesis, as suggested by baseline demographic monitoring over the past 2 years. Detailed demographic data will be used to construct empirically based size-structured open-population models. Elasticity analysis of these models will determine the relative importance of different demographic rates in driving changes in local population size.The combined observational-experimental and empirical-theoretical approach of this study will provide a novel large-scale test of the recruitment limitation hypothesis for marine fish. Additionally, this project may provide insight on the effects of human-induced global climate change on coral reefs. Baseline demographic monitoring has detected a region-wide 3-year decline in bicolor damselfish populations correlated with the bleaching and death of the corals they inhabit. This project will determine whether this population decline is a long-term, multi-generation trend.