Details:

Journal Title:
Nature Communications
Personal Author:
Wood, S. ; Baums, I. B. ; Paris, C. B. ; Ridgwell, A. ; Kessler, W. S. ; ... More +
Wood, S. ; Baums, I. B. ; Paris, C. B. ; Ridgwell, A. ; Kessler, W. S. ; Hendy, E. J. Less -
NOAA Program & Office:
OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; PMEL (Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory)
OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; PMEL (Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory) Less -
Description:
More than 5,000 km separates the frequently disturbed coral reefs of the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) from western sources of population replenishment. It has been hypothesized that El Nino events facilitate eastward dispersal across this East Pacific Barrier (EPB). Here we present a biophysical coral larval dispersal model driven by 14.5 years of high-resolution surface ocean current data including the extreme 1997-1998 El Nino. We find no eastward cross-EPB connections over this period, which implies that ETP coral populations decimated by the 1998 bleaching event can only have recovered from eastern Pacific sources, in congruence with genetic data. Instead, rare connections between eastern and central Pacific reefs are simulated in a westward direction. Significant complexity and variability in the surface flows transporting larvae mean that generalized upper-ocean circulation patterns are poor descriptors of inter-regional connectivity, complicating the assessment of how climate change will impact coral gene flow Pacific wide.
Keywords:
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Coral Reefs And Islands
El Niño Current
Marine Biology
Ocean Currents

Source:
Nature Communications 7 (12571)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12571
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC4996977
Document Type:
Journal Article
Place as Subject:
Pacific Ocean
Rights Information:
CC BY
Compliance:
PMC
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:4c28fb66747e89be87bb5094b501161438e03ab5d557c3abf6bcca2782eb8900
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