Award: OCE-1924604

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) is fundamental to marine science and critical for effective fisheries management and conservation, yet it remains an important unresolved question. Our major project goal was to document 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 goals. We studied the Kellet’s Whelk, an important fisheries species along the coast of California and Baja 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 other sites. However, the patterns of connectivity can vary dramatically among sites 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. Identifying the genetic differences and patterns of gene expression that allow individuals to survive and reproduce 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 a dozen 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 four of these undergraduate students and all graduate and post-doctoral fellows earned co-authorship on research publications from the work. A total of 16 peer-reviewed publications and 6 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 1,200 students and directly engaged over 200 members of the public to date.

 

Last Modified: 09/01/2025
Modified by: Robert J Toonen