Project Overview

Coral Triangle PIRE is a collaborative effort among marine biologists of the different countries of the Indo-Malay-Philippine Archipelago (IMPA) and the United States. We will test the role of oceanographic and geological processes in creating regional barriers to gene flow, thus facilitating lineage diversification within the IMPA.

Examining the patterns of genetic connectivity across multiple codistributed taxa spanning the IMPA.

We will collect multi-locus population genetic data (sequence and microsatellites) from a broad range of marine species , including fish, corals and other invertebrates, sampled from 40 localities throughout the IMPA (see map). From these data we will aim to reconstruct the phylogeographic histories of each species, together with estimates of genetic structure among the sampled regions. Concordant phylogeographic patterns will indicate the action of a shared physical environment in helping to create the high modern levels of marine biodiversity in the IMPA.

Integrating estimates of genetic connectivity with predicted dispersal connectivity derived from explicit geospatial models.

We will make predictions of larval connectivity throughout the region using a spatially-explicit, biophysical modelling approach to determine contemporary as well as Pleistocene dispersal probabilities among reef habitats of the IMPA. Correlations between these model predictions and our empirical estimates of gene flow will elucidate the relative importance of a shared contemporary or historical oceanographic environment in creating patterns of genetic and species-level diversity.

Contributions to Regional Management

The reefs of the IMPA are some of the most critically threatened in the world. World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy are working with IMPA governmental and non-governmental organizations to develop networks of marine protected areas arranged in "sustainable seascapes". Understanding patterns of connectivity is essential to developing marine protected area (MPA) networks, and our integrated genetic-geospatial modeling approach will produce the most detailed understanding to date of connectivity among IMPA reefs.

CT-PIRE Sampling localities

Daily density plot of larvae with 30 day pelagic durations that were released from reef habitat in the Coral Triangle from a biophysical dispersal model created by Dr. Eric Treml.

Dr. Eric Crandall discusses the project with nenbers of the provincial council of Romblon, Philippines