Project: Multispecies connectivity: Comparative analysis of marine connectivity and its drivers for the coral reefs of Hawaii

Description from NSF award abstract:
The exchange of individuals among populations, termed connectivity, is a central element of population persistence and maintenance of genetic diversity, and influences most ecological and evolutionary processes. To date, field studies of marine connectivity have necessarily focused on one or a few species at a time, providing little understanding of both the extent of variability in connectivity across a whole community and what factors drive that variability. This project will address these questions with population genetic datasets of a diverse marine fauna sampled across the Hawaiian Archipelago. By combining these genetic data with extensive oceanographic, ecological and historical data, this project can potentially transform our understanding of the basis of the genetic structure of populations and the processes influencing genetic patterns. This project will provide unique, and new, knowledge to basic marine ecology and the science of Ecosystem Based Management while incorporating the latest analytical and simulation approaches.

The results will be novel on several fronts: 1) advancing our understanding of community genetics and associated statistical techniques; 2) achieving true integration of genetic, ecological and oceanographic data over large spatial scales for many species simultaneously using a World Heritage Site; the Hawaiian Papahânaumokuâkea Marine National Monument; 3) factoring historical effects into connectivity studies; and 4) providing information on the location of barriers to connectivity, the sources and sinks of individuals and the physical processes influencing ecological patterns at a community level. This project will result in a quantum leap for both the conceptual and empirical understanding of marine connectivity and the utility of population genetic data in basic and applied marine science.