Project: BIOCOMPLEXITY: Marine Benthic Population Dynamics

NSF abstract: The processes that govern the population dynamics of nearshore benthic species - larval production and transport, larval settlement, local disturbance, predation, competition for space, etc - are each complex. For example, larval settlement depends not only upon the rate of arrival of larvae but also the availability of free substrate, larval behavior, and small-scale hydrodynamics. Each of these processes is nonlinear and has been studied separately. The principle investigators have already been successful in identifying some of these processes. But because each one is complex and operates at a different temporal and spatial scale, little progress has been made in coupling them together. This project should increase understanding of these processes using, a combination of observational and mathematical techniques. The following will also be investigated: whether alongshore differences in recruitment, larval transport, and larval dispersal result from the differences in local stratification, and whether the behavior of the larvae interacting with the local stratification results in differences in larval transport.