Ph.D. Candidate, Katrina Catalano, and several Pinsky Lab co-authors published a paper in Molecular Ecology exploring the larval dispersal of a coral reef fish, the yellowtail clownfish (Amphiprion clarkii). They processed genetic samples from these fish along 30 km of coastline consisting of 19 reef patches in seven years (2012–2018) and monsoon seasons to determine dispersal patterns. They found that the distance of dispersal of each fish subpopulation in their study varied significantly among years and seasons, but not in direction of dispersal (northward, southward, or self-recruiting). The amount of dispersal variation observed in this study is comparable to variation among species, indicating that interannual and seasonal variation likely play a significant role in determining metapopulation dynamics.
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