Collaborative Research: Recruitment Dynamics and Population Connectivity in Bahamian Octocorals

补充，即种群中增加新的个体，在分析海洋底栖物种的种群动态方面发挥了突出作用。了解新生物是来自当地种群（封闭种群）还是来自其他来源（开放种群）以及来自哪些来源（连通性），对于了解底栖种群的动态以及底栖物种的养护和管理至关重要。评估种群是封闭的还是开放的在方法上是困难的，大多数这样的分析在本质上是推论性的。加勒比柳珊瑚的收获，在巴哈马群岛，创造了一个大规模的人口密度操纵，并提供了一个独特的机会，直接确定是否P. elisabethae种群是封闭的，在多大规模。从收获对补充和种群年龄结构的影响来评估P.elisabethae种群的连通性。在这个项目中，将继续评估恢复中人口的补充和联系情况，并将利用即将开发的新标记，加强基于DNA微卫星的联系措施。将建立巴哈马幼虫扩散的高分辨率生物物理模型，并将经验研究结果与扩散模拟结果进行比较。生物物理模型在评估连通性模式方面具有潜在的强大功能，本研究项目提供了一个独特的机会，可以验证生物物理模型，并比较用于评估海洋群落连通性的不同方法。对另外五个没有捕捞的密切相关鱼种进行平行研究，将提供资料，说明生殖战略在确定各鱼种和生境补充方面的作用，以及幼虫供应的相对重要性，以及定居后进程在确定分布格局方面的作用，这项研究的广泛影响在很大程度上是基于解决海洋生态学的一个基本问题，海洋种群是开放的还是封闭的，并评估不同方法在作出这一决定方面的效用。这一问题对珊瑚礁物种特别令人关切，因为它们面临的危险越来越大，需要制定健全的养护政策。此外，研究重点是一个具有商业重要性的物种，目前正在巴哈马捕捞，并可能在整个加勒比捕捞。这项研究将引起诸如关心珊瑚礁养护和管理的政府组织和非政府组织等利益有关者的广泛兴趣。该项目的教育方面分为两类。首先，该项目将涉及来自美国和巴哈马的研究生和本科生的参与和培训。其次，研究将形成一个案例研究的基础上，为国家科学案例研究教学中心开发。该案例研究将用于布法罗大学的本科课程，并通过中心？世界各地的教员都可以访问该网站。

Recruitment, the addition of new individuals to populations, has played a prominent role in analyses of the population dynamics of marine benthic species. Understanding whether recruits come from local populations (closed populations) or from other sources (open populations) and from which sources (connectivity) is essential to understanding of the dynamics of benthic populations and to the conservation and management of benthic species. Assessing whether populations are closed or open is methodologically difficult and most such analyses have been inferential in nature. The harvest of the Caribbean gorgonian, Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae in the Bahamas, has created a massive manipulation of population density and has provided a unique opportunity to directly determine whether P. elisabethae populations are closed and on what scale. Connectivity of P. elisabethae populations is being assessed from the effects of the harvest on recruitment and population age structure. In this project, assessments of recruitment and connectivity in recovering populations will be continued and enhanced DNA microsatellite based measures of connectivity will be undertaken using new markers which will be developed. A high resolution bio-physical model of larval dispersal in the Bahamas will be developed and the results of the empirical studies will be compared with the simulation of dispersal. Bio-physical models are a potentially powerful in assessing patterns of connectivity and this research project provides a unique opportunity to validate the biophysical model and compare the different methodologies used to assess connectivity in marine communities. Parallel studies of five additional, closely related, species that are not harvested will provide information on the role of reproductive strategies in determining recruitment across species and habitats and the relative importance of larval supply, and post-settlement processes in establishing distribution patterns.The broader impacts of the study are in large part based on addressing one of the fundamental questions of marine ecology, whether marine populations are open or closed and assessing the utility of different methodologies in making that determination. The question is of particular concern for coral reef species, which are increasingly at risk and require the development of sound conservation policies. In addition, the study focuses on a commercially important species that is currently being harvested in the Bahamas and could be harvested throughout the Caribbean. The study will be of broad interest to stakeholders such as governmental and non-governmental organizations interested in the conservation and management of coral reefs. Educational aspects of the project fall into two categories. Firstly, the project will involve the participation and training of graduate and undergraduate students from both the U.S. and the Bahamas. Secondly, the research will form the basis of a case study to be developed for the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. The case study will be used in University at Buffalo undergraduate classes and through the Center?s website will be available to instructors throughout the world.