Dispersal’s Role in Structuring Diversity at Hydrothermal Vents

Connectivity is facilitated by the dispersal of planktonic larvae in most marine ecosystems. This dispersal can be simulated and used as a proxy for isolation to test assumptions of metacommunity dynamics.

Hydrothermal vents present a natural laboratory to study metacommunity dynamics, as an ecosystem that is truly discrete in space and connected via dispersal on stable and predictable deep-ocean currents.

Otis Brunner combined species’ distribution data and simulations of larval dispersal to explore metacommunity dynamics among a network of hydrothermal vents in the Northwest Pacific. This approach uses methods from graph theory to combine empirical observations and spatially explicit metacommunity simulations.

Otis will clarify the interacting effects regional dispersal and local selection have on structuring diversity at hydrothermal vents currently threatened by mining activity. This model is able to also incorporate anthropogenic impacts such as mining or global climate change to predict their effects on diversity at this vulnerable marine ecosystem.