EarthRef.org Digital Archive (ERDA) -- Seamount Laboratories - Understanding of Connectivity and Evolution and Endemism

Description
Seamounts around the world are currently threatened by destructive fishery practices (e.g. trawling and long-lining), placing a premium on understanding the ecological and evolutionary processes structuring the resiliency and connectivity of seamount species. In his SEAMOUNTS'09 keynote Tim Shank explains that using seamounts as natural laboratories can increasingly enable scientists to study the impacts of geographic and hydrographic separation, depth zonation, habitat availability, species-specific physiological limitations and life histories, and ocean circulation patterns on the: 1) connectivity of commercially important species; 2) historical migration of marine fauna in response to climate change and the 3) design of conservation strategies informed by modern rates of genetic connectivity. As part of understanding this approach, the ecological and evolutionary processes that structure and maintain the diversity and evolution of seamount fauna will be discussed in light of established yet young paradigms relating seamounts as: a) islands of endemic fauna, and b) centers of isolation or of decreased connectivity (leading to genetic divergence, speciation, and relict faunas). Recent observations and genetic data are challenging these paradigms and providing new insights and perspectives that will inform the next paradigm to be integrated into future conservation efforts. These results, including ongoing work comparing the co-evolution and co-dispersal of coral invertebrate associates and their coral hosts, whose life histories are directly intertwined, underscore the importance of future decisions by managers concerned with the protection of oceanic biodiversity.