Award: OCE-1924505

This project studied how coastal marine fisheries populations are connected in space and time and sought to improve our ability to predict where the next generation is coming from. Understanding these patterns of connectivity (the dispersal and arrival of juveniles) and what causes them is fundamental to marine science and critical for effective fisheries management and conservation, yet these patterns and causes remain largely unknown. Our major project goal was to combine field research in the ocean with experiments in aquaria and cutting-edge genomic (DNA analysis) tools in the laboratory to measure patterns of connectivity in a seafood species through space and time to understand where juveniles originated and what factors can control their dispersal.

The project successfully met all our intellectual merit and broader impact objectives. We studied Kellet’s Whelk, an important fisheries species along the US West coast that has extended its range northward over the past few decades. We showed that populations are replenished by the arrival of tiny larvae that have been spawned by adults from both nearby and distant sites. The patterns of connectivity can vary dramatically among sites and across years. In particular, El Niño years allow cohorts of larvae to penetrate further northward and expand the species’ range through time if those individuals can survive. In some cases, select groups of the arriving larvae are weeded and die out as they grow into juveniles, causing the ultimate pattern of population connectivity at a site to morph over time as the next generation of individuals matures. In Kellet’s whelk’s northern expanded range, for example, few of the larvae arriving from further south survive as they grow, leaving behind a population dominated by juveniles that were produced locally in the expanded range. 

This project advanced population genetic science by developing and demonstrating a method that combines field, lab and genomic research to successfully measure patterns of population connectivity in marine species. In doing so, this project advanced marine science by revealing multiple generations of patterns of population connectivity across the entire coastal range of a marine species. Additionally, this project advanced evolutionary science by emphasizing how population connectivity is influenced by the pattern of local survival of settling larvae as they grow and in relation to where they came from. Identifying the patterns of population connectivity and survival that allow individuals to disperse to and persist in colder northern waters helps us to understand what sets the natural range limits of marine species and how those limits can change under environmental variability.

This work trained more than 70 undergraduate and graduate students, formed the basis of each a Masters and a Doctoral thesis, and trained three post-docs, one of which went on to a tenure-track faculty position directly from this project. Students were trained, provided with opportunities for lab exchanges, and ultimately 10 of these undergraduate students and all graduate and post-doctoral fellows earned co-authorship on research publications from the work. A total of 17 peer-reviewed publications and 5 public data repositories have been generated thus far from this work, with several more currently in preparation. We also generated two K-12 lesson plans and launched a virtual reality SCUBA diving research experience in support of marine science education for broad dissemination that has reached over 1,800 elementary, middle, and high school students. Finally, through the Cal Poly Pier Open House the outreach materials we created have engaged approximately 2,000 members of the public per year in ocean education and discovery.

 

 

Last Modified: 01/22/2026
Modified by: Mark Christie