Quantification of Connectivity in the Coastal Ocean and its Ecological and Societal Application

Many important science problems in coastal marine ecology and their related management applications require knowledge of the connectivity of one nearshore site with a nearby one. These connections can be via the transport of dissolved constituents from a pollution spill or by the transport of planktonic larvae linking metapopulations of a valued fish stock. Yet the quantification of coastal connectivity is often something not often considered by marine scientists. Here, we use high resolution numerical model solutions of the Southern California Bight to quantify Lagrangian transition probability density functions (PDFs) quantify connectivity among nearshore locations. These PDFs provide an encapsulation of the net transport of water masses consistent with known oceanographic patterns. We then use these source-sink determinations to explain the spatial structuring of nearshore marine communities and to place an economic value on spatial marine fishery management.