Collaborative Research: Recruitment dynamics and population connectivity in Bahamian octocorals

补充，即在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重要作用。了解新兵是来自当地种群(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养护和管理底栖物种至关重要。评估人口是封闭的还是开放的在方法上是困难的，而且大多数这样的分析本质上都是推论的。在巴哈马的加勒比海柳珊瑚的捕捞造成了大规模的种群密度操纵，并提供了一个独特的机会来直接确定伊利萨贝虫种群是否关闭以及规模有多大。正在从收获对招募和种群年龄结构的影响来评估Elisabthae种群的连通性。在该项目中，将继续对恢复人口的招募和连通性进行评估，并将利用将开发的新标记物加强基于DNA微卫星的连通性测量。将建立巴哈马群岛幼虫扩散的高分辨率生物物理模型，并将经验研究的结果与扩散模拟进行比较。生物物理模型在评估连通性模式方面具有潜在的强大作用，该研究项目提供了一个独特的机会来验证生物物理模型，并比较用于评估海洋界连通性的不同方法。对另外五个密切相关但尚未捕捞的物种进行平行研究，将提供关于繁殖战略在确定跨物种和生境的补充方面的作用、幼体供应的相对重要性以及定居后过程在确定分布模式方面的信息。这项研究的更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，即海洋种群是开放的还是封闭的，并评估不同方法在确定这一确定方面的效用。这个问题对珊瑚礁物种尤其令人关切，这些物种面临的风险越来越大，需要制定健全的保护政策。此外，这项研究的重点是一种商业上重要的物种，该物种目前正在巴哈马收获，并可能在整个加勒比海地区收获。这项研究将引起关注珊瑚礁养护和管理的政府和非政府组织等利益攸关方的广泛兴趣。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，这项研究将成为为国家科学案例教学中心开发的案例研究的基础。该案例研究将用于布法罗大学的本科生课程，并通过该中心的网站向世界各地的教师提供。

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.