James M. Pringle

Asymmetric dispersal allows an upstream region to control population structure throughout a species’ range

In a single well-mixed population, equally abundant neutral alleles are equally likely to persist. However, in spatially complex populations structured by an asymmetric dispersal mechanism, such as a coastal population where larvae are predominantly moved downstream by currents, the eventual frequency of neutral haplotypes will depend on their initial spatial location. In our study of the progression of two spatially separate, genetically distinct introductions of the European green crab (Carcinus maenas) along the coast of eastern North America, we captured this process in action. We documented the shift of the genetic cline in this species over 8 y, and here we detail how the upstream haplotypes are beginning to dominate the system. This quantification of an evolving genetic boundary in a coastal system demonstrates that novel genetic alleles or haplotypes that arise or are introduced into upstream retention zones (regions whose export of larvae is not balanced by import from elsewhere) will increase in frequency in the entire system. This phenomenon should be widespread when there is asymmetrical dispersal, in the oceans or on land, suggesting that the upstream edge of a species’ range can influence genetic diversity throughout its distribution. Efforts to protect the upstream edge of an asymmetrically dispersing species’ range are vital to conserving genetic diversity in the species.

Enhancement of Wind-Driven Upwelling and Downwelling by Alongshore Bathymetric Variability*

Steady wind-driven flow along a shelf of changing width is described with a frictional barotropic model valid in the limit of small Rossby and Burger number. In these limits, an alongshore wind drives enhanced onshelf transport in a coastal ocean if the shelf widens downwind, and the change in shelf width only affects the flow in the direction of Kelvin wave propagation (‘‘downwave’’) from the change in shelf width. There is enhanced onshore transport of cold, nutrient-laden bottom water if the winds favor upwelling and the shelf narrows in the direction of Kelvin wave propagation. This enhanced transport extends a considerable distance away from the change in shelf width but becomes concentrated near the shelf break far from the change in width. Isobath curvature on the scale of the shelf width significantly modifies local cross-shelf transport. The cross-shelf transport of nutrient-rich water during upwelling is expected to be enhanced from Point Eugenia to La Jolla, San Luis Obispo to Monterey, and Point Reyes to Cape Mendocino on the west coast of North America.

Cross‐shelf eddy heat transport in a wind‐free coastal ocean undergoing winter time cooling

A steady state cross-shelf density gradient of a wind-free coastal ocean undergoing winter time cooling is found for cooling and geometries which do not vary in the along-shelf direction. The steady state cross-shelf density gradient exists even when the average density of the water continues to increase. The steady state density gradient can be attained in less than a winter for parameters appropriate to the mid-Atlantic Bight. The cross-shelf eddy-driven buoyancy fluxes which cause this steady state gradient are found to depend critically on bottom friction and bottom slope, and the coastal polyna solutions of Chapman and Gawarkiewicz [1997] are significantly modified by this dependence in the limit of polynas with a large alongshore extent. Bottom friction retards the cross-shelf propagation of eddies, so that the buoyancy transport is no longer carried by self-advecting eddy pairs but mixed across the shelf by interacting eddies. The eddy interaction changes the length scale of the eddies until it is the lesser of the Rhines arrest scale or an analogous frictional arrest scale. The estimates of the steady state cross-shelf density gradient are found to compare well with numerical model results.

Invasion Expansion: Time since introduction best predicts global ranges of marine invaders.

Strategies for managing biological invasions are often based on the premise that characteristics of invading species and the invaded environment are key predictors of the invader’s distribution. Yet, for either biological traits or environmental characteristics to explain distribution, adequate time must have elapsed for species to spread to all potential habitats. We compiled and analyzed a database of natural history and ecological traits of 138 coastal marine invertebrate species, the environmental conditions at sites to which they have been introduced, and their date of first introduction. We found that time since introduction explained the largest fraction (20%) of the variability in non-native range size, while traits of the species and environmental variables had significant, but minimal, influence on non-native range size. The positive relationship between time since introduction and range size indicates that non-native marine invertebrate species are not at equilibrium and are still spreading, posing a major challenge for management of coastal ecosystems.

Circulation constrains the evolution of larval development modes and life histories in the coastal ocean

The evolutionary pressures that drive long larval planktonic durations in some coastal marine organisms, while allowing direct development in others, have been vigorously debated. We introduce into the argument the asymmetric dispersal of larvae by coastal currents and find that the strength of the currents helps determine which dispersal strategies are evolutionarily stable. In a spatially and temporally uniform coastal ocean of finite extent, direct development is always evolutionarily stable. For passively drifting larvae, long planktonic durations are stable when the ratio of mean to fluctuating currents is small and the rate at which larvae increase in size in the plankton is greater than the mortality rate (both in units of per time). However, larval behavior that reduces downstream larval dispersal for a given time in plankton will be selected for, consistent with widespread observations of behaviors that reduce dispersal of marine larvae. Larvae with long planktonic durations are shown to be favored not for the additional dispersal they allow, but for the additional fecundity that larval feeding in the plankton enables. We analyzed the spatial distribution of larval life histories in a large database of coastal marine benthic invertebrates and documented a link between ocean circulation and the frequency of planktotrophy in the coastal ocean. The spatial variation in the frequency of species with planktotrophic larvae is largely consistent with our theory; increases in mean currents lead to a decrease in the fraction of species with planktotrophic larvae over a broad range of temperatures.

Observations of high-frequency internal waves in the Coastal Ocean Dynamics Region

Current meter data from the second Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment (CODE II) for July 1982 are analyzed for internal waves in the 6 to 40 cycles per day (cpd) frequency band. It is found that the wave field is anisotropic and that the current ellipses are oriented in approximately the cross-isobath direction. The squares of the ratio of the major to minor axes of the current ellipses (the “ellipticity”) are consistent with a continuum of internal waves propagating onshore but are not consistent with a single wave propagating onshore. The reduction of internal wave energy across the shelf is consistent with propagation from the deep ocean or shelf break, as is the correlation between vertical velocities and velocities parallel to the minor axis. However, there is evidence for the generation of additional internal wave energy on the shelf in the evolution of the current ellipses across the shelf and in the bluing of the internal wave spectra across the shelf. Internal wave energy levels are elevated by a factor of 1.5 to 5 above Garrett and Munk [1972] levels at the moorings on the 130 and 365 m isobaths. The first vertical mode dominates at the 130 m isobath, the only mooring for which the vertical modal analysis was done.

The oceanic concordance of phylogeography and biogeography: a case study in Notochthamalus.

Abstract Dispersal and adaptation are the two primary mechanisms that set the range distributions for a population or species. As such, understanding how these mechanisms interact in marine organisms in particular – with capacity for long‐range dispersal and a poor understanding of what selective environments species are responding to – can provide useful insights for the exploration of biogeographic patterns. Previously, the barnacle Notochthamalus scabrosus has revealed two evolutionarily distinct lineages with a joint distribution that suggests an association with one of the two major biogeographic boundaries (~30°S) along the coast of Chile. However, spatial and genomic sampling of this system has been limited until now. We hypothesized that given the strong oceanographic and environmental shifts associated with the other major biogeographic boundary (~42°S) for Chilean coastal invertebrates, the southern mitochondrial lineage would dominate or go to fixation in locations further to the south. We also evaluated nuclear polymorphism data from 130 single nucleotide polymorphisms to evaluate the concordance of the signal from the nuclear genome with that of the mitochondrial sample. Through the application of standard population genetic approaches along with a Lagrangian ocean connectivity model, we describe the codistribution of these lineages through a simultaneous evaluation of coastal lineage frequencies, an approximation of larval behavior, and current‐driven dispersal. Our results show that this pattern could not persist without the two lineages having distinct environmental optima. We suggest that a more thorough integration of larval dynamics, explicit dispersal models, and near‐shore environmental analysis can explain much of the coastal biogeography of Chile.

Revisiting the logistic map: A closer look at the dynamics of a classic chaotic population model with ecologically realistic spatial structure and dispersal

There is an ongoing debate about the applicability of chaotic and nonlinear models to ecological systems. Initial introduction of chaotic population models to the ecological literature was largely theoretical in nature and difficult to apply to real-world systems. Here, we build upon and expand prior work by performing an in-depth examination of the dynamical complexities of a spatially explicit chaotic population, within an ecologically applicable modeling framework. We pair a classic chaotic growth model (the logistic map) with explicit dispersal length scale and shape via a Gaussian dispersal kernel. Spatio-temporal heterogeneity is incorporated by applying stochastic perturbations throughout the spatial domain. We witness a variety of population dynamics dependent on the growth rate, dispersal distance, and domain size. Dispersal serves to eliminate chaotic population behavior for many of the parameter combinations tested. The model displays extreme sensitivity to changes in growth rate, dispersal distance, or domain size, but is robust to low-level stochastic population perturbations. Large and temporally consistent perturbations can lead to a change in population dynamics. Frequent switching occurs between chaotic/non-chaotic behaviors as dispersal distance, domain size, or growth rate increases. Small changes in these parameters are easy to imagine in real populations, and understanding or anticipating the abrupt resulting shifts in population dynamics is important for population management and conservation.

A downstream drift into chaos: Asymmetric dispersal in a classic density dependent population model

In the ocean, propagules with a planktonic stage are typically dispersed some distance downstream of the parent generation, introducing an asymmetry to the dispersal. Ocean-dwelling species have also been shown to exhibit chaotic population dynamics. Therefore, we must better understand chaotic population dynamics under the influence of asymmetrical dispersal. Here, we examine a density-dependent population in a current, where the current has both a mean and stochastic component. In our finite domain, the current moves offspring in the downstream direction. This system displays a rich variety of dynamics from chaotic to steady-state, depending on the mean distance the offspring are moved downstream, the diffusive spread of the offspring, and the domain size. We find that asymmetric dispersal can act as a stabilizing or destabilizing mechanism, depending on the size of the mean dispersal distance relative to the other system parameters. As the strength of the current increases, the system can experience period-halving bifurcation cascades. Thus, we show that stability of chaotic aquatic populations is directly tied to the strength of the ocean current in their environment, and our model predicts increased prevalence of chaos with decreasing dispersal distance. Climate change is likely to alter the dispersal patterns of many species, and so our results have implications for conservation and management of said species. We discuss the management implications, particularly of exploited species.