Santa Cruz Island Reserve

16 Mar, 05 PM - 20 Mar, 05 PM

COMMUNITY GENETICS AND MARINE PROTECTED AREAS OF THE CALIFORNIA AND BAJA CALIFORNIA MAINLAND AND ISLAND ARRAY A. Significance We will investigate the issues of contemporary connectivity, covariation between genetic and species diversity, and the evolutionary effects of selection on future connectivity in the spatially explicit context of the oceanography and MPAs of the mainland California coast and California Channel Islands. Importantly, physical oceanography, population genetics, and species distributions will be integrated theoretically in a model that will be generally applicable to other taxa and other places. The overlay of oceanography, phylogeography and biogeography will be a powerful tool to delineate management and policy efforts by highlighting natural bio-regions in terms of both community processes and gene flow. Our research will contribute fundamentally to the goals of the MLPA for using the scientific process to ensure MPAs are ?developed in a systematic manner, with clear goals and objectives, and management plans and programs for monitoring and evaluating their effectiveness ? including the conservation of biological diversity? (CDF&G 2007, p. 9). Particularly, we emphasize ?the interaction of different elements? (CDF&G 2007, p. 75) of biological diversity ?within species, between species and of ecosystems? including genetic resources and populations (CBD 1992). Our work will contribute to [1] monitoring, evaluating, and adaptive management of MLPA stage 1 in Central California and to [2] the design of stage 2 in northern California (CRA 2006) including strategies to mitigate selection for life-history evolution. Understanding natural selection pressures on marine life histories, particularly dispersal potential, and how the establishment of MPAs (of different levels of protection), modifies selection pressure is essential for improving our knowledge of the form and function of MPAs, and therefore our ability to formulate designs that will (or will not) work into the future. Our project joins together research at three traditionally separate levels? physical oceanography, population genetics, and community ecology ? each central to improving understanding of the factors and interactions that generate observed patterns of genetic and species diversity in coastal marine habitats. This project advances previous national and international initiatives in coupled bio-physical modeling of harvested and non-harvested marine resources. Dovetailing analyses at these different spatial scales, across which behavior of organisms may have varying influence on dispersal, is one of the outstanding challenges for regional ecosystem-based management, one that we will begin to address here. B. Proposed research Genetic diversity and species diversity are theoretically consequences of parallel processes affected by habitat area, environmental heterogeneity, species? attributes (e.g. physiology, fecundity), population growth, and immigration rate. In marine environments, immigration is a function of abundance, fecundity, and dispersal of species in source locations and oceanographic connections and environmental differences between source and recipient locations. Interplay between immigration and self-recruitment affects local adaptation, local population dynamics, and the scale at which migration from MPAs into surrounding unprotected areas provides resources for exploitation. Functional MPA networks ? like natural metapopulations ? therefore must balance habitat size and spacing with the scales of self-recruitment and dispersal. None of these critical parameters has been easy to estimate for most marine species. We will examine the relationship between patterns of genetic diversity (in 9 species, comprising 6 invertebrates and 3 macrophytes) and species diversity at 31 mainland and island sites (including MPAs) in California and Baja California, and explicitly link these patterns to physical oceanography (including small- and large-scale phenomena that affect how propagules enter/leave the plankton and disperse). We will estimate gene flow among, and genetic diversity within, populations of 9 species with different colonization potential at sites within or adjacent to existing or proposed conservation areas monitored by Coastal Biodiversity Surveys (CBS) since 2000. These genetic data will be compared with [1] patterns of community similarity calculated from CBS data and [2] predicted patterns of biological connectivity based on the routes, strengths, timing, and durations of currents, i.e. potential dispersal corridors, documented using various oceanographic tools such as High Frequency (HF) radar and regional ocean circulation model (ROMS). We will do this from two different perspectives: [1] by using oceanographic patterns to predict gene flow and species distributions, and [2] by using observed genetic and species patterns to infer which oceanographic patterns have historically been most influential. i. Study Sites PISCO Coastal Biodiversity Surveys (CBS) have been conducted at ca. 90 rocky intertidal sites along the Pacific coast of North America (http://cbsurveys.ucsc.edu/siteinfo/siteinfo.html). We chose study locations using existing CBS species data and published genetic data to estimate the number and extent of coastal biotic regions and subregions of California (e.g. Dawson 2001; Wares et al., 2001; Raimondi et al. unpubl. data). We identified sampling locations within each of the biotic regions and subregions, focusing on sites that were (1) MLPA sites (www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/mlpa/pdfs/nccsr_map1.pdf) or other conservation areas (e.g. state marine reserves, state marine parks, state marine conservation areas, UC-NRS, Channel Islands National Park), and (2) near PISCO/SiMON ADCPs necessary for near-shore analyses. The list of sites follows (annotated according to this scheme: UC NRS, State park, reserve or other property, National Park): Mainland sites: North of Mendocino (Damnation Creek, Trinidad), Mendocino to Pt Reyes (Shelter Cove, Bodega), Pt Reyes to Monterey Bay (Bolinas Pt, Pigeon Pt), Monterey Bay to Morro Bay (Pt Lobos, Cambria), Morro Bay to Pt. Conception (Hazards, Boathouse), Pt. Conception to Los Angeles (Arroyo Hondo, Paradise Cove), Los Angeles to San Diego (Crystal Cove, Scripps), Baja California (La Bufadora, La Chorera). Farallon Islands: southeast. Channel Island sites: San Miguel (Cuyler Harbor, Crook Pt), Santa Rosa (NW Talcott, Johnson?s Lee), Santa Cruz (Fraser Pt, Willows), Anacapa (Middle, Frenchy?s Cove), Santa Barbara (Sea Lion Rookery, Landing Cove), San Nicholas (Thousand Springs, Marker Poles), Santa Catalina (Bird Rock, Little Harbor). ii. Study Species & Collection Date We will collect 40 individuals of the nine species (listed below) from 8 areas along 50 m of coastline. This collection will be made once on April 8, 2008. The low tide occurs before the park opens and the collections will be made before visitors enter the park. The list of functional groups and species follows. Invertebrates: low dispersal (Nucella emarginata, Nucella ostrina), medium dispersal (Lottia digitalis, Lottia scabra), high dispersal (Pollicipes polymerus, Tetraclita rubescens). Macrophytes: low dispersal (Silvetia compressa, Mastocarpus papillatus, Chondrocanthus canaliculatus). For Silvetia compressa only a 2 inch piece of non-reproductive thallus will be collected. C. How results can be applied by State agencies to specific coastal issues This research is particularly timely as the state is currently implementing a system of MPAs along the entire coast of California. MPAs for the central part of the California coastline (A?o Nuevo to Point Conception) have just been designated, and the implementation process for north-central California (Pigeon Point to Alder Creek) is just beginning. Both areas are within the proposed study region (as is southern California, the 3rd region considered by the MLPA). During the implementation process for the central coast of California, spatial habitat distribution, genetic and species diversity, and spatial connectivity were identified as key variables for determining the siting, sizing and spacing of reserves. Yet, only extremely limited information was available for many of these variables and much of the decision process was based primarily on the opinions of the scientists involved. This project will develop indices of diversity and connectivity that will directly contribute to the State's ability both to assess the effectiveness of MPA designations for the central California coastline and to implement effective reserve networks in other parts of the state. Specifically, we will generate 6 products: a series of matrices for our study sites that describe (1) genetic diversity, (2) species diversity; and (3) physical oceanographic connectivity (4) genetic connectivity, (5) community similarity; (6) an oceanographic model at 5-10 km resolution as a prototype management tool. The matrices will be simple-to-read maps with layers showing diversity within sites and strengths of linkages between them. Overlay of oceanography, phylogeography and biogeography will be a powerful tool to delineate management and policy efforts by highlighting natural bio-regions in terms of both community processes and gene flow, and it will implicate a subset of causal mechanisms important for long-term success of the MLPA. D. Literature cited CBD. 1992. Article 2. Use of terms. Convention on Biological Diversity. http://www.biodiv.org/convention/articles.shtml?a=cbd-02 CDF&G. 2007. California MLPA Master Plan for Marine Protected Areas. CRA. 2006. Resources secretary announces next MLPA study region. State of California Resources Agency press release, December 21, 2006. Dawson, M. N, Staton, J. L., and D. K. Jacobs. 2001. Phylogeography of the tidewater goby, Eucyclogobius newberryi (Teleostei, Gobiidae), in coastal California. Evolution 55:1167-1179. Wares, J. P., Gaines, S. D., and C. W. Cunningham. 2001. A comparative study of asymmetric migration events across a marine biogeographic boundary. Evolution 55:295?306.

Visit #14640 @Santa Cruz Island Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 956 | Research

Comprehensive Rocky Intertidal Surveys

graduate_student - University of California, Santa Cruz

Reservation Members(s)

Kristen Kusic Mar 16 - 20, 2008 (5 days)

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Dorm 1 Mar 16 - 20, 2008