Larval Ecology - Linking Dispersal, Recruitment
and Population Dynamics
I study the
ways that
larval
dispersal
interacts
with
(1)
smaller
scale
settlement
and
recruitment
behavior
and
(2)
larger scale
Rocky intertidal sampling – sunrise at low tide in Donan, Northern Japan.
population
dynamics
and
connectivity. Studying such complex phenomena involving biological,
physical and chemical oceanography over a range of spatial scales requires
interdisciplinary collaboration, and datasets that span a range of spatial and
temporal scales. As a JSPS postdoctoral fellow, in collaboration with Dr.
Takashi Noda’s community ecology group at Hokkaido University in
Sapporo Japan, I studied rocky shore barnacle recruitment. The broad spatial
and temporal scale of the field program allowed me to test the relative
influence of physical and biological factors on how recruitment translates to
changes in adult populations1. I also examined how small scale patterns of
barnacle recruitment change over across tidal levels2,3.
1
Munroe, D.M., Noda, T. 2010. Physical and Biological Factors Contributing to Changes
in the Relative Importance of Recruitment to Population Dynamics. Marine Ecology
Progress Series 412: 151-162.
2
Munroe, D.M, and T. Noda. 2009. Spatial pattern of rocky intertidal barnacle
recruitment: comparison over multiple tidal levels and years. Journal of the Marine
Biological Association of the United Kingdom 89(2): 345-353.
3
Munroe, D.M., Noda, T., and Ikeda, T. 2010. Shore Level Changes in Barnacle
(Chthamalus dalli) Recruitment Patterns Relative to Rock Surface Topography.
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 392: 188-192.