Quantifying dispersal from hydrothermal vent fields in the western Pacific Ocean.

ABSTRACT: Hydrothermal vent fields in the western Pacific Ocean are mostly distributed along spreading centers in submarine basins behind convergent plate boundaries. Larval dispersal resulting from deep-ocean circulations is one of the major factors influencing gene flow, diversity, and distributions of vent animals. By combining a biophysical model and deep-profiling float experiments, we quantify potential larval dispersal of vent species via ocean circulation in the western Pacific Ocean. We demonstrate that vent fields within back-arc basins could be well connected without particular directionality, whereas basin-to-basin dispersal is expected to occur infrequently, once in tens to hundreds of thousands of years, with clear dispersal barriers and directionality associated with ocean currents. T

SUBMITTER: Mitarai S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4801315 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature