Project Leader: Professor Terry Hughes, James Cook
University
Understanding the scale of larval dispersal
is a major challenge in marine ecology and it is clear that
management of marine fishes, including by marine protected areas
(MPAs), must incorporate the scales over which their populations
are connected by larval dispersal.
MPAs (green zones) in the Great Barrier Reef
promote the abundance, size and reproductive potential of exploited
fishes within their boundaries, but an important question remains
unanswered - Do green zones provide a recruitment subsidy to
exploited fish populations such as coral trout beyond their
boundaries (blue zones), thereby promoting the resilience and
sustainable exploitation of fish resources?
Project 4.8.1 will provide answers to the
following questions critical to the assessment of the effectiveness
of the GBR Zoning model:
-
What is the spatial scale of connectivity by larval fish
dispersal within the GBR?
-
How much do green zones contribute to the recruitment of coral
trout and other fish species in blue zones (via larval
connectivity)?
-
To what extent are populations in green zones sustained by their
own reproduction (via larval retention)?
-
Are particular areas especially important sources of larvae for
blue zones?
-
Are particular areas sustained by retention or by dispersal?
Key objectives of this Project are to develop
and test realistic larval-fish dispersal models for the Great
Barrier Reef.
