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Science 4 May 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5825, pp. 742 - 744
DOI: 10.1126/science.1140597
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Reports

Local Replenishment of Coral Reef Fish Populations in a Marine Reserve

Glenn R. Almany,1* Michael L. Berumen,1,2 Simon R. Thorrold,3 Serge Planes,4 Geoffrey P. Jones1

The scale of larval dispersal of marine organisms is important for the design of networks of marine protected areas. We examined the fate of coral reef fish larvae produced at a small island reserve, using a mass-marking method based on maternal transmission of stable isotopes to offspring. Approximately 60% of settled juveniles were spawned at the island, for species with both short (<2 weeks) and long (>1 month) pelagic larval durations. If natal homing of larvae is a common life-history strategy, the appropriate spatial scales for the management and conservation of coral reefs are likely to be much smaller than previously assumed.

1 Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Marine and Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville QLD 4811, Australia.
2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA.
3 Department of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA.
4 Joint Research Unit 5244, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes–CNRS, Centrede Biologieetd 'Ecologie Tropicale et Mediterraneenne, Universite de Perpignan, F-66860 Perpignan Cedex, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: glenn.almany{at}jcu.edu.au

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)