COS 79-4
Local scales of larval dispersal
Over the past 15 years, new techniques such as natural and artificial geochemical tags and DNA markers have provided emerging evidence that self-recruitment rates back to natal reefs and natal islands may be considerable for some marine species. This pattern of high local recruitment has been identified for species that are known to have metapopulation dynamics with regional exchange across sites more than 50-100km away, including reef fish with pelagic larval durations that exceed a week and sites where larger scale oceanographic transport has been observed. Here we analyze island-scale recruitment patterns of one such species, the Orange clownfish, Amphiprion percula, obtained from parentage analyses in three different years around Kimbe Island, Papua New Guinea.
Results/Conclusions
Comparing the observed natal-to-settlement events to all possible anemone-to-anemone connections reveals that there is bias towards shorter dispersal distances at the local scale in all years despite potentially variable oceanographic conditions. Around island connectivity also appears to be a regular occurrence, with exchange of larvae across some of the more distant anemones.