Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 May 2010
INTRODUCTION
Connectivity is a concept shared in landscape and metapopulation ecology that is used to describe the movement or exchange of organisms between habitats on various temporal and spatial scales (Gilpin and Hanski 1991; Hanksi and Gilpin 1997; Crooks and Sanjayan Chapter 1; Taylor et al. Chapter 2; Moilanen and Hanski Chapter 3) and its population and community consequences. Many marine habitats, such as kelp forests, estuaries, wetlands, seagrass beds, coral and rocky reefs, and deep-sea hydrothermal vents, are naturally fragmented and patchy. As a result, many scientists working with marine populations and associated systems adopt a metapopulation-based interpretation of connectivity where landscapes are viewed as a network of habitat patches or fragments in which species occur as discrete local populations connected by the passive and active migration of individuals. In marine systems, connectivity may be generated by movements of early life stages such as larvae or spores (hereafter referred to as propagules), juveniles, or adults.
The majority of marine organisms, including benthic (living on or in the bottom), demersal (living near and in close association with the bottom), and holoplanktonic (living in the plankton) species, have a complex life cycle characterized by planktonic stages of development (e.g., larvae, spores). In the case of marine invertebrates and fishes, propagules exhibit a diversity of nutritional modes, development sites, planktonic durations, and morphological development patterns that can affect patterns of connectivity (Table 8.1).
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.