title: Marine Dispersal Scales Are Congruent over Evolutionary and Ecological Time.
abstract: The degree to which offspring remain near their parents or disperse widely is critical for understanding population dynamics, evolution, and biogeography, and for designing conservation actions. In the ocean, most estimates suggesting short-distance dispersal are based on direct ecological observations of dispersing individuals, while indirect evolutionary estimates often suggest substantially greater homogeneity among populations. Reconciling these two approaches and their seemingly competing perspectives on dispersal has been a major challenge. Here we show for the first time that evolutionary and ecological measures of larval dispersal can closely agree by using both to estimate the distribution of dispersal distances. In orange clownfish (Amphiprion percula) populations in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea, we found that evolutionary dispersal kernels were 17 km (95% confidence interval: 12-24 km) wide, while an exhaustive set of direct larval dispersal observations suggested kernel widths of 27 km (19-36 km) or 19 km (15-27 km) across two years. The similarity between these two approaches suggests that ecological and evolutionary dispersal kernels can be equivalent, and that the apparent disagreement between direct and indirect measurements can be overcome. Our results suggest that carefully applied evolutionary methods, which are often less expensive, can be broadly relevant for understanding ecological dispersal across the tree of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. Electronic address: malin.pinsky@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Malin L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Pinsky
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia 5090000, Chile.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Saenz-Agudelo
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Excellence "CORAIL," USR 3278 CNRS-EPHE-UPVD CRIOBE, 58 Avenue Paul Alduy, 66860 Perpignan, France.
authors.forename: Océane C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Salles
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Excellence "CORAIL," USR 3278 CNRS-EPHE-UPVD CRIOBE, 58 Avenue Paul Alduy, 66860 Perpignan, France.
authors.forename: Glenn R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Almany
authors.affiliation: ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, School of Botany, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bode
authors.affiliation: Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Berumen
authors.affiliation: UMR 250 ENTROPIE (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université de la Réunion, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), BP A5, Noumea, 98848, New Caledonia.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andréfouët
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
authors.forename: Simon R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Thorrold
authors.affiliation: College of Science and Engineering and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia.
authors.forename: Geoffrey P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Excellence "CORAIL," USR 3278 CNRS-EPHE-UPVD CRIOBE, 58 Avenue Paul Alduy, 66860 Perpignan, France.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Planes
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D005828:Genetics, Population; D007814:Larva / Q000502:physiology; D010473:Perciformes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D011157:Population Dynamics; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: Papua New Guinea; connectivity; coral reef; isolation by distance; larvae; metapopulation; population genetics; reef fish