Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2010 Dec 21;5(12):e15715. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0015715.
Acceptance of marine protected areas (MPAs) as fishery and conservation tools has been hampered by lack of direct evidence that MPAs successfully seed unprotected areas with larvae of targeted species. For the first time, we present direct evidence of large-scale population connectivity within an existing and effective network of MPAs. A new parentage analysis identified four parent-offspring pairs from a large, exploited population of the coral-reef fish Zebrasoma flavescens in Hawai'i, revealing larval dispersal distances ranging from 15 to 184 km. In two cases, successful dispersal was from an MPA to unprotected sites. Given high adult abundances, the documentation of any parent-offspring pairs demonstrates that ecologically-relevant larval connectivity between reefs is substantial. All offspring settled at sites to the north of where they were spawned. Satellite altimetry and oceanographic models from relevant time periods indicated a cyclonic eddy that created prevailing northward currents between sites where parents and offspring were found. These findings empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of MPAs as useful conservation and management tools and further highlight the importance of coupling oceanographic, genetic, and ecological data to predict, validate and quantify larval connectivity among marine populations.
海洋保护区 (MPAs) 作为渔业和保护工具的接受度受到阻碍，因为缺乏直接证据表明 MPAs 成功地将目标物种的幼虫播种到未保护区。我们首次提供了现有有效 MPA 网络内大规模种群连通性的直接证据。一项新的亲子分析从夏威夷的珊瑚礁鱼类 Zebrasoma flavescens 的一个大型受开发种群中确定了四对亲子对，揭示了幼虫扩散距离从 15 到 184 公里不等。在两种情况下，成功的扩散是从 MPA 到未保护区。鉴于成年个体的大量存在，任何亲子对的记录都表明，珊瑚礁之间具有生态相关性的幼虫连通性是相当可观的。所有后代都在产卵地以北的地点定居。相关时期的卫星测高和海洋学模型表明，一个气旋式涡流在父母和后代被发现的地点之间产生了盛行的向北流动。这些发现从经验上证明了 MPAs 作为有用的保护和管理工具的有效性，并进一步强调了将海洋学、遗传学和生态学数据相结合以预测、验证和量化海洋种群之间幼虫连通性的重要性。
