High connectivity among habitats precludes the relationship between dispersal and range size in tropical reef fishes

Abstract

The hypothesis that pelagic larval duration (PLD) influences range size in marine species with a benthic adult stage and a pelagic larval period is intuitively attractive; yet, studies conducted to date have failed to support it. A possibility for the lack of a relationship between PLD and range size may stem from the failure of past studies to account for the effect of species evolutionary ages, which may add to the dispersal capabilities of species. However, if dispersal over ecological (i.e. PLD) and across evolutionary (i.e. species evolutionary age) time scales continues to show no effect on range size then an outstanding question is why? Here we collected data on PLD, evolutionary ages..