Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Sep 18;109(38):15372-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1206378109. Epub 2012 Sep 4.
Tropical marine ecosystems are under mounting anthropogenic pressure from overfishing and habitat destruction, leading to declines in their structure and function on a global scale. Although maintaining connectivity among habitats within a seascape is necessary for preserving population resistance and resilience, quantifying movements of individuals within seascapes remains challenging. Traditional methods of identifying and valuing potential coral reef fish nursery habitats are indirect, often relying on visual surveys of abundance and correlations of size and biomass among habitats. We used compound-specific stable isotope analyses to determine movement patterns of commercially important fish populations within a coral reef seascape. This approach allowed us to quantify the relative contributions of individuals from inshore nurseries to reef populations and identify migration corridors among important habitats. Our results provided direct measurements of remarkable migrations by juvenile snapper of over 30 km, between nurseries and reefs. We also found significant plasticity in juvenile nursery residency. Although a majority of individuals on coastal reefs had used seagrass nurseries as juveniles, many adults on oceanic reefs had settled directly into reef habitats. Moreover, seascape configuration played a critical but heretofore unrecognized role in determining connectivity among habitats. Finally, our approach provides key quantitative data necessary to estimate the value of distinctive habitats to ecosystem services provided by seascapes.
热带海洋生态系统承受着来自过度捕捞和栖息地破坏的日益增加的人为压力，导致其结构和功能在全球范围内下降。尽管在景观尺度上保持栖息地之间的连通性对于维持种群的抵抗力和恢复力是必要的，但量化景观内个体的运动仍然具有挑战性。传统的确定和评估潜在珊瑚礁鱼类育苗栖息地的方法是间接的，通常依赖于对丰度的视觉调查以及栖息地之间大小和生物量的相关性。我们使用特定于化合物的稳定同位素分析来确定珊瑚礁景观内商业上重要鱼类种群的运动模式。这种方法使我们能够量化来自近岸育苗场的个体对珊瑚礁种群的相对贡献，并确定重要栖息地之间的迁移走廊。我们的研究结果提供了关于超过 30 公里的幼年笛鲷非凡迁徙的直接测量，包括从育苗场到珊瑚礁的迁徙。我们还发现了幼年育苗场居留的显著可塑性。尽管大多数沿海珊瑚礁上的个体在幼年时期都使用了海草草甸作为育苗场，但许多大洋珊瑚礁上的成年个体已经直接定居在珊瑚礁栖息地。此外，景观结构在确定栖息地之间的连通性方面起着关键但迄今未被认识的作用。最后，我们的方法提供了必要的关键定量数据，用于估计独特栖息地对景观提供的生态系统服务的价值。
