SAMS, Scottish Marine Institute, Oban, Argyll, PA37 1QA, UK.
Parallel Works Inc., 222 Merchandise Mart Plz. Suite 1212, Chicago, IL, 60654, USA.
Sci Rep. 2020 Jun 30;10(1):10675. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67503-7.
Ecosystem connectivity is an essential consideration for marine spatial planning of competing interests in the deep sea. Immobile, adult communities are connected through freely floating larvae, depending on new recruits for their health and to adapt to external pressures. We hypothesize that the vertical swimming ability of deep-sea larvae, before they permanently settle at the bottom, is one way larvae can control dispersal. We test this hypothesis with more than [Formula: see text] simulated particles with a range of active swimming behaviours embedded within the currents of a high-resolution ocean model. Despite much stronger horizontal ocean currents, vertical swimming of simulated larvae can have an order of magnitude impact on dispersal. These strong relationships between larval dispersal, pathways, and active swimming demonstrate that lack of data on larval behaviour traits is a serious impediment to modelling deep-sea ecosystem connectivity; this uncertainty greatly limits our ability to develop ecologically coherent marine protected area networks.
生态系统连通性是深海中竞争利益的海洋空间规划的一个重要考虑因素。固定不动的成年群落通过自由漂浮的幼虫相互连接，依赖新的补充来维持其健康并适应外部压力。我们假设，深海幼虫在永久定居到底部之前的垂直游动能力是幼虫控制扩散的一种方式。我们通过在高分辨率海洋模型的海流中嵌入一系列具有不同主动游动行为的[Formula: see text]个模拟粒子来检验这一假设。尽管水平海流要强得多，但模拟幼虫的垂直游动对扩散的影响可能达到一个数量级。幼虫扩散、路径和主动游动之间的这种强烈关系表明，缺乏有关幼虫行为特征的数据是对深海生态系统连通性进行建模的严重障碍；这种不确定性极大地限制了我们发展具有生态一致性的海洋保护区网络的能力。
