Journal article
The Eastern Tropical Pacific coral population connectivity and the role of the Eastern Pacific Barrier
M Romero-Torres, EA Treml, A Acosta, DA Paz-Garciá
Scientific Reports | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Published : 2018
Abstract
Long-distance dispersal is believed to strongly influence coral reef population dynamics across the Tropical Pacific. However, the spatial scale and strength at which populations are potentially connected by dispersal remains uncertain. To determine the patterns in connectivity between the Eastern (ETP) and Central Tropical Pacific (CTP) ecoregions, we used a biophysical model incorporating ocean currents and larval biology to quantify the seascape-wide dispersal potential among all population. We quantified the likelihood and determined the oceanographic conditions that enable the dispersal of coral larvae across the Eastern Pacific Barrier (EP-Barrier) and identified the main connectivity ..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Facultad de Ciencias Físicas y Matemáticas
Funding Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided by Colciencias-Colfuturo (Scholarship for Doctoral Studies 528) and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Facultad de Ciencias (ID PPTA 4135 and 4159). We thank Treml's Marine Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab, Steve Swearer's Group, and the High-Performance computing cluster (Edward) at the School of Biosciences University of Melbourne. DAPG received a CONACYT fellowship during the development of this study (250126). Also, Maria Claudia Diazgranados at Conservation International Colombia for ideas on ETP connectivity. M.R-T thanks Princeton University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute - Panama for practice as teaching assistant in Coiba's Island. Likewise, we thank the members of the Strategic Marine Ecosystems Laboratory in the Javeriana University. Andrea Acosta for helping with Matlab code. The comments of Maria Echeverry, Fernando Zapata, Elvira Alvarado, Jurgen Guerrero, Hector Reyes and Juan Sanchez greatly improved this work.