Recruitment among density manipulated populations of a Caribbean gorgonian

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)还是来自遥远来源(开放种群)，对于我们了解底栖生物种群的动态以及保护和管理底栖生物物种至关重要。这些问题对珊瑚礁群落具有特别重要的意义，因为珊瑚礁群落面临的风险越来越大，需要制定健全的保护政策。评估种群是封闭的还是开放的在方法上很困难，而且大多数此类分析都是推论性质的。对生殖个体密度的直接和大规模的操纵可以用来在实验上测试种群是否开放，但在大多数情况下，由于后勤和环境的限制，这种操纵很难进行。单一物种密度的大规模操纵目前是由巴哈马群岛的加勒比海柳珊瑚Pseudopterogorgia elisabthae的捕捞产生的。Elisabthae菌落每2？3年轮作一次，收获后不再具有生殖大小。这创造了一个马赛克区域，所有这些区域都可以支持该物种，但其中一些区域产生的卵和幼虫数量大幅减少。无论是在收获后还是随着繁殖群体数量的增加，检查这些地区和空间规模等级的招募情况，将提供一个独特的机会，直接确定伊利萨贝斯肺吸虫种群是否关闭以及规模有多大。将在小巴哈马浅滩每年的产卵活动之后监测招募情况，并通过对招募人员的DNA微卫星分析评估招募人员的来源。广泛影响这项研究的更广泛影响在很大程度上是基于它解决了海洋生态的一个基本问题，即海洋种群是开放的还是封闭的。此外，这项研究的重点是一种具有重要商业价值的物种，该物种目前正在巴哈马群岛捕捞，并正在调查加勒比其他地区的捕捞情况。因此，这项研究应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，该项目将包括参与和培训来自美国和巴哈马的研究生和本科生。其次，这项研究将为国家科学案例研究教学中心开发案例研究奠定基础。案例研究将强调开展研究的过程以及研究的结果。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全国各地的教师提供。

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 distant sources (open populations) is essential to our understanding of the dynamics of benthic populations and to the conservation and management of benthic species. These questions are of particular importance for coral reef communities, which are increasingly at risk and require the development of sound conservation policies.Assessing whether populations are closed or open is methodologically difficult and most such analyses have been inferential in nature. Direct and large?scale manipulations of the density of reproductive individuals could be used to experimentally test whether or not a population is open, but in most cases such manipulations are difficult to undertake due to logistical and environmental constraints. The large?scale manipulation of density of a single species is currently being generated by the harvest of the Caribbean gorgonian, Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae in the Bahamas. P. elisabethae colonies are cropped on a 2?3 y rotation and after harvest are no longer of reproductive size. This has created a mosaic of areas all of which can support the species but some of which produce dramatically reduced numbers of eggs and larvae. Examining recruitment in these areas and across a hierarchy of spatial scales, both after harvest and as the number of reproductive colonies increases, will provide a unique opportunity to directly determine whether P. elisabethae populations are closed and on what scale. Recruitment will be monitored follow annual spawning events on the Little Bahama Bank and the origin of recruits assessed from DNA microsatellite analyses of the recruits.Broader ImpactsThe broader impacts of the study are in large part based on it addressing one of the fundamental questions of marine ecology, whether marine populations are open or closed. In addition, the study focuses on a commercially important species that is currently being harvested in the Bahamas and is under investigation for harvest elsewhere in the Caribbean. The study should therefore be of broad interest to stakeholders such as governmental and nongovernmental 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 graduate and undergraduate students from both the U.S. and the Bahamas. Secondly, the research will form the basis for a case study to be developed for the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. The case study will emphasize the process by which research is developed as well as the results of the research. 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 country.