Multiple Uses & Spatial Planning

Sea Grant Topical page

Harold Batchelder

Realized and Potential Larval Connectivity Along the Oregon Coast

Presentation:

For several years Oregon has begun to think about implementing marine reserves or marine protected areas in the Oregon territorial sea. This project attempts to understand how effective these areas are in doing what they are meant to do.

Bachelder’s team is looking at the role marine reserves, which provide refuges for adult animals, might play in the propagation of juvenile animals that move away from the refuge source and travel over  time to other parts of the sea.

Many factors control real and potential larval connectivity: e.g., time, the size of destination regions, population numbers and fecundity, how long the larvae survive, etc.

“We want to know are the reserves functioning in a way that allow the adults to move out of the reserves and occupy other locations.” Are more larvae moving from one area to another, or are some areas largely “self-seeding”?

This project will use more common larval forms of benthic invertebrates (mainly crabs and barnacles) and data from current and previous plankton sampling to understand where these animals could have gone had they not been  caught for sampling. Sophisticated models of several different kinds of data will help identify the source and probable destination of larvae. Results will be communicated with managers and used in HMSC activities.