The Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) is a long-term scientific research and training program dedicated to advancing the understanding of the marine ecosystems that lie near shore along the U.S. West Coast. PISCO is pioneering a new, integrated approach to studying these complex, poorly known, but exceedingly rich and economically important environments.The program is unparalleled for its highly interdisciplinary nature, its large geographic extent, and the decades-long time frame over which it is designed to operate. PISCO conducts monitoring and experiments along more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) of coastline, as well as laboratory and theoretical studies. The research incorporates oceanography, ecology, chemistry, physiology, molecular biology, and mathematical modeling to gain novel insights into systems ranging from individual animals and plants to geographic-scale ecosystems.PISCO’s findings are applied to conservation and resource management issues, and PISCO scientists participate in local, regional, national, and international initiatives in marine environmental planning. The consortium supplies scientific knowledge to government agencies, policy makers, resource managers, non-governmental organizations, other scientists, the media, and the interested public. Through its university courses, PISCO helps to train the next generation of scientists in interdisciplinary approaches to marine research.Established in January 1999 with funding from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, PISCO is led by scientists from Oregon State University (OSU), Stanford University, University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC), and University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB).

what is PISCO?

PISCO Coastal Connections • Volume 1

1 View from the Wave Crest

2 Patterns of ChangePisco Takes the Long – and Large – View

6 Oceanographic FrontiersThe Unknown Coast

10 Ecological LinkagesTiny Larvae Go with theFlow – but Where?

14 Interdisciplinary Training & Research

16 Sharing the Science

This issue highlights research findings and accomplishments from PISCO’s inau-gural three years. “Patterns of Change” describes our new scientific insights into how marine ecosystems – both along the shore and below the water – of the U.S West Coast vary over time and distance. “Oceanographic Frontiers” focuses on our novel application of oceanography and advanced technology to help understand these patterns of change. “Ecological Linkages” explores PISCO’s development and usage of new tools in microchemistry, genetics, and oceanography to solve the important mysteries of how ocean currents might link populations, habitats, and ecosystems on a regional scale. “Interdisciplinary Training & Research” reports on PISCO’s initiatives to train talented university students in state-of-the-art research. And “Sharing the Science” shows how we are integrating the latest scientific understanding with current issues in environmental policy, management, and conservation, for example in the design of marine reserves.

We hope that you enjoy this issue, and we look forward to sharing other exciting advances with you in the years to come.

View from the Wave Crest

Editor & Writer: Peter H. TaylorArt Director: Jeff JonesDesigner: Monica PessinoIllustrator: Linda D. NelsonCoastal Connections Coordinators:Lydia Bergen, Renee Davis-Born,Joanna Nelson

PISCOCoastal ConnectionsVolume 1

Table of Contents

Coastal Connections is a publication of the Part-nership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO). Contents © 2002 PISCO. For more information about PISCO or to join the mailing list for future publications, please contact the consortium at the addresses listed on the back cover.

Welcome to the premier issue of Coastal Connections, a publication of the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO). PISCO is a new model for conducting large-scale, interdisciplinary research on coastal marine ecosystems. We work at the interfaces of several scientific disciplines and draw on the talents of diverse scientists. As the Principal Investigators, we share a passion for discovery and communication, a unique vision for research and training, and a keen interest in a more integrated understanding of coastal ecosystems.

Cover photo: © 2002 Dave Lohse

Jane Lubchenco and Bruce MengeOregon State University

Peter Raimondi and Mark CarrUniversity of California, Santa Cruz

Mark Denny and George SomeroStanford University, Hopkins Marine Station

Robert Warner and Steven GainesUniversity of California, Santa Barbara

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Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans

PISCO scientists found that species such as the ochre sea star (above) do not necessarily reach peak abundance in the center of their geographic range.

Biodiversity & Population ReplenishmentMarine biodiversity of the West Coast is extraordinary, and it varies from region to region. Previous studies have been conducted at scales too small to describe and understand such patterns. PISCO’s surveys provide the first quantification of major biodiversity patterns along the West Coast (see illustration, opposite). PISCO scientists can now predict ecological characteristics of rocky shore communities based on physical and biological attributes of the coastline and nearby ocean.

Likewise, PISCO’s monitoring of the population replenishment, or recruitment, of invertebrates and fishes shows important large-scale spatial patterns. Ocean currents potentially transport the larvae of many species for long distances before they settle to live a relatively sedentary adult life. PISCO’s research reveals that the West Coast comprises distinct segments differing hugely in rates of population replenishment (see illustration, opposite). The rates apparently relate to the strength of offshore water flow, which may carry larvae away from coastal habitats. Such marked differences between regions may have wide-ranging consequences for ecosystems and fisheries.

Few ecological research programs have spanned sufficient distances and time periods to permit investigation of important large-scale patterns. However, mounting evidence hints that processes such as El Niño climate fluctuations and variable ocean circulation can pivotally influence even small ecological systems like reefs, kelp forests, and fishing grounds.

The first program of its kind, PISCO fills the urgent need for geographic-scale, many-year studies of coastal marine ecosystems. With detailed, ongoing sur-veys at dozens of shoreline and shallow reef sites from Southern California to Washington, PISCO is revealing previously undetected patterns of change over time and space. Although technological and scientific challenges remain, the consortium is making immediate, significant progress, and its findings are informing diverse scientific and conservation issues. The following exemplify the consortium’s initial findings on ecological patterns.

Ecosystems can vary dramatically over time and distance. A key step to scientific understanding and successful management is to identify the patterns of change across geographic areas and over many years in such variables as population sizes, biodiversity, and environmental conditions. Scientists can uncover the causes of these patterns to provide vital information for conservation and resource management.

PISCO Takes the Long – and Large – View

Geographic Ranges: Middle ≠ Most

In ecology, important patterns can cover large geographic areas, but scientific studies are often conducted on a limited spatial scale – and the results can be problematic. Biologists generally assume that a species lives in greatest abundance near the center of its geographic range and that its numbers decline toward the edges. PISCO/UCSB graduate student Raphael Sagarin worked with PISCO principal investigator Steven Gaines to examine this key assumption and found that field studies often bias toward finding an “abundant center” – even where it doesn’t exist – because of their sampling procedures.

Sagarin and Gaines surveyed the abundance of twelve marine invertebrates across all or most of the species’ ranges. Only two species occurred in highest abundance near their range center, while six species reached peak numbers near one of their range edges. These findings highlight the tremendous variability in ecological patterns over space and the need for studies to cover large distances to determine the actual – rather than assumed – patterns. Sagarin and Gaines suggest coupling data on species abundance over geographic ranges with information on other factors, such as physiological state and genetic traits, to understand the causes of range boundaries, the likely responses of species to climate change, and possible design, location, and spacing of marine reserves for conserving species populations.

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OFpatterns change

PISCO Takes the Long – and Large – View

Change Over Distance

PISCO conducts interdisciplinary research at more than 50 sites (red dots) that span 1,200 miles of coastline. Our scientists study biodiversity, population replenishment, physiological stresses, genetics, and other factors. Already, significant patterns are emerging. For example, the research reveals a northward increase in biodiversity of invertebrates and algae living in the low intertidal zone (purple graph). In addition, mussel population replenishment (or recruitment) echoes that trend with strikingly different rates from north to south (yellow graph). PISCO is investigating the potential role of ocean currents in causing this pattern.

El Niño La Niña

Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans

El Niño & La Niña: Changes in Flow Impact FishLong-term research is imperative for understanding ecological fluctuations and trends, and it can provide resource managers with early warnings of environmental problems such as disease and pollution. Already, fish population monitoring by PISCO principal investigator Mark Carr, science coordinator Jenn Caselle, and postdoctoral fellow Craig Syms has detected changes related to the climate fluctuations known as El Niño and La Niña.

New Tool for Fish Ecology

Research by PISCO has contributed to development of a useful new method for monitoring fish populations. Scientists routinely need to count the number of juvenile fishes that settle from the drifting larval phase to join a population of relatively sedentary adults living on a reef. This process of population replenishment can strongly influence the dynamics and distribution of adult populations. However, performing accurate surveys of the tiny young fishes can be difficult and costly. PISCO/UCSC graduate student Arnold Ammann set out to develop and evaluate a standardized, cost-efficient, and relatively simple method for counting newly settled fishes.

The product is called the “Standard Moni-toring Unit for Recruitment of Fishes,” or SMURF, and is constructed of plastic mesh 1.3 meters long and 0.3 meters in diam-eter. Ammann tested SMURFs on the tem-perate reefs of Monterey Bay, California, and tracked the number of fishes settling onto the units, including cabezon and many rockfishes. His results show SMURFs are an efficient and cost-effective tool for esti-mating spatial and temporal patterns of population replenishment of reef fishes. PISCO now uses SMURFs to monitor fish recruitment at many sites along the West Coast, and other research institutions and agencies are adopting them.

Yellow graph: Rockfish species whose larvae spend a relatively long time (more than three months) dispersing on ocean currents added few young to their populations during El Niño, compared to a normal year, and unusually many during La Niña. Green graph: Rockfish species whose larvae spend a relatively short time (20 to 30 days) dispersing showed the opposite pattern. The difference seems to be linked to the effects of ocean circulation on larval dispersal.

The research shows that the young of some species of rockfishes that dwell in kelp forests add to the adult populations in greater numbers during El Niño than during La Niña, while the young of other rockfishes display the opposite trend. The pattern appears to arise from the fishes’ differing life histories and from variation in ocean circulation. The links among climate, oceanography, and the replenishment of rockfish populations can strongly affect kelp forest ecosystems. Similarly, PISCO’s ongoing research in rocky shore habitats, which builds on previous studies by PISCO principal investigator Peter Raimondi and other researchers, capitalizes on the value of monitoring over many years.

During El Niño, water temperatures rise as weak winds produce little offshore flow. During La Niña, surface waters cool because strong winds cause offshore flow that draws cold, deep water to the surface.

A PISCO diver uses the new tool, called a SMURF, to moni-tor the number of young fishes joining a reef’s population.

PACIFIC OCEAN

CALIFORNIA CALIFORNIA

PACIFIC OCEAN

San FranciscoSan Francisco

Warmer

Colder

Warmer

Colder

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PISCO Coastal Connections • Volume 1

A Catalyst for Change in Marine ResearchPISCO’s scientific framework is catalyzing new strategies for understanding marine ecosystems along the U.S. West Coast and around the world.

PISCO’s broad range of disciplines, geographic scale, and focus on environ-ments near shore provide a cohesive framework for integrating numerous other complementary research efforts. For example, PISCO inaugurated the Pacific Northwest Oceanographic Research Meetings to foster collaborations with the offshore oceanographic sampling and cruise programs of U.S. Global Ocean Ecosystems Dynamics (U.S. GLOBEC) and the National Science Foundation’s Coastal Ocean Processes (NSF CoOP). Closer to shore, PISCO scientists are integrally involved in designing protocols for monitoring coastal fish popu-lations as part of the California Marine Life Management Act. A team of scientists at the University of California at Davis has aligned with PISCO to perform intertidal, subtidal, and oceanographic research in the relatively under-studied region of northern California. As a complement to PISCO research, theA. W. Mellon Foundation funds two preeminent scientists to conduct genetic research throughout our study area.

Other research initiatives are transferring the PISCO approach to coastal ecosys-tems elsewhere in the world. The Mellon Foundation funds research programs in Chile, New Zealand, and South Africa that adopt the PISCO framework. The programs are specifically designed to use comparable research methods that will test the generality of PISCO findings in other coastal upwelling ecosystems.

patterns of change

PISCO’s long-term monitoring of shoreline (above) and kelp forest (below) sites along the U.S. West Coast provides insight into large-scale ecologicalchanges.

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Deployed on the seafloor, the acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) is a device that uses sound waves to measure the speed and direction of water flow at many depths between the ocean bottom and the surface.

ADCP

PISCO/OSU relies on the 54-foot R/V Elakha, purchased in 2000 and shown above, for deploying moorings and collect-ing samples along the coast. PISCO/UCSC uses the 32-foot R/V Paragon, purchased in 2001 and outfitted for nitrox diving, for extensive oceanographic sampling and underwater ecological research.

Research Vessels

Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans

Coastal marine ecosystems rank among the most ecologically and economi-cally valuable environments in the world. Bathed in nutrient-rich waters, the diverse habitats of reefs, kelp forests, rocky shores, and estuaries host extraordinary biodiversity and support important fisheries. Understanding the flow patterns of water through these ecosystems is essential for conservation efforts. Many fish and invertebrates begin life as tiny larvae that may drift for long distances, and the process of larval transport on ocean currents has the potential to link populations and ecosystems over hundreds of miles. Coastal oceanography also influences ecological processes through fluctua-tions in water temperature, nutrients, food supply, physical damage caused by waves, and other variables. Consequently, environmental scientists and resource managers urgently need an improved scientific understanding of coastal oceanography and its ecological effects.

The Unknown Coast

ceanographers traditionally have dedicated most of their research to the open ocean, hence the dynamics of flow near the coast remain poorly understood. The land and shallow seafloor can strongly influence currents and cause complex oceanographic conditions that vary tremendously over time and distance. Despite much recent research on the mid and outer continental shelf, few studies have focused on the waters closest to shore. The coastal ocean – in spite of its proximity to land and civilization – truly represents an oceanographic frontier.

OOpposite: PISCO uses a variety of instruments for studying the oceanography of the U.S. West Coast. Below & following pages: Each component of PISCO’s research program contributes to a comprehensive understanding of coastal water flow and environmental conditions.

Technology Aids UnderstandingTo help gain such insights, PISCO scientists work collaboratively to develop novel scientific techniques and applications of technology in the coastal ocean. While the consortium is dedicated to innovative interdisciplinary work, the research also achieves significant contributions to individual disciplines such as physical oceanography. For ongoing monitoring, the consortium uses a suite of advanced instruments to obtain comprehensive data on flow patterns and other physical processes (see illustration, opposite). Two key instruments are the acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) and the coastal ocean dynamics application radar (CODAR). Coupled with PISCO’s ecological, genetic, and microchemistry research, the consortium’s advances in coastal oceanography offer a new understanding of flow dynamics in a complex portion of the ocean and help to explain major ecological processes. One long-term goal is to determine where ocean currents transport larvae, a crucial factor for the design of marine reserves. Two case studies of research linking oceanography with ecology are featured on the following pages.

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oceanographicfrontiers

Near Santa Barbara and Point Conception, PISCO operates four high-frequency, land-based radar stations (CODARs) for detailed real-time tracking of surface currents. The complex, variable circulation patterns of this region can have important ecological effects, and the radars offer unprecedented potential for identifying such links. In one study, UCSB graduate student Mary Nishimoto and PISCO Research Fellow Libe Washburn used PISCO’s radar data to relate larval fish distribution in the Santa Barbara Channel to changes in circulation. With trawling funded by the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, they quantified the abundance of fish larvae at various locations (red bars on map). Together, the radar and fish data indicate that large numbers of larvae may be retained in the Channel by the circular flow of eddies, such as the one revealed here with arrows from CODAR data. This process of retention could have implications for fish population dynamics and fisheries management.

Radar Data: Eddies May Retain Fish Larvae

Blacksmith damselfish (magnified)

PISCO analyzes satellite data on sea sur-face temperatures, circulation patterns, and productivity along the West Coast.

Small boats carry PISCO scuba divers to conduct fieldwork in kelp forests and technicians to maintain moorings and other sampling equipment.

PISCO maintains land-based, high-fre-quency radar units called CODARs to measure ocean surface currents out to 25 miles (42 km) offshore with a spatial reso-lution of approximately 1.5 miles (2-3 km). Researchers can access the current data in real-time.

Satellite Imaging

Small Boats

High-Frequency Radar (CODAR)

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PISCO Coastal Connections • Volume 1

Barnacle larvae drift with ocean currents before settling and attaching perma-nently to rocky shores. Studies have shown that young barnacles replenish the population in pulses, often when the intensity of coastal upwelling diminishes. Research by PISCO/OSU scientists Brian Grantham, Bruce Menge, and Jane Lubchenco identified a mechanism that drives this process. They deployed moorings near the Oregon shore to measure oceanographic conditions and the population replenishment, or recruitment, of barnacles. They also moni-tored recruitment on nearby rocky shores. Results showed that peaks in recruit-ment occurred when temperatures increased and currents reversed during a period of diminished upwelling – but not when such a current reversal did not accompany a temperature increase. Therefore, the researchers suggest that current reversals cause the pulses of barnacle recruitment. But local variations in landforms, which alter current flow, modify those large-scale processes and affect recruitment rates at particular sites, even along relatively straight coasts. One implication is that selection of suitable sites for marine reserves might require evaluating the local potential for recruitment.

Reversals of Currents Deliver Larvae to Shore

oceanographic frontiers

CODAR images: M. Kosro, College of Oceanic & Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University.

Typical Offshore Flow (Upwelling) Flow Reversal

Barnacle larva (magnified)

PISCO and collaborating oceanographers tow the Acrobat, a small, remotely controlled data-collection device, behind research vessels to profile oceanographic conditions.

At more than 50 sites, PISCO scientists monitor shoreline biodiversity, population replenishment, invertebrate growth rates, and other factors. Data recorders measure water temperatures and other variables.

Suspended underwater on specialized moorings, oceanographic sampling devices collect data on water temperature, salinity, and currents. The instruments record mea-surements at a high frequency, often many times per hour.

Acrobat

Shoreline Sampling

Moorings

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Above: Fish incorporate trace elements from seawater into the daily growth layers of the otolith (right, magnified). Left: Like this sea urchin larva (magnified), many young invertebrates and fish drift on ocean currents.

Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans

This facet of marine biology means that the number of adults at a particular site may depend more on the arrival of young transported from elsewhere than on local reproduction. The process of population replenishment, called recruitment by marine ecologists, can be a major factor governing the fluctua-tions of local populations. Knowledge about patterns of larval dispersal and the processes that cause variability in population replenishment over time and distance is critical for successful fisheries management and marine conserva-tion. For example, if one reef serves as the primary source of fish larvae for many “downstream” reefs along a coast, that site might be essential to protect as a marine reserve, so it can continue to sustain the other populations.

ost marine animals, including many commercially important species, begin life as microscopic larvae that drift on the ocean currents for weeks or months, potentially traveling hundreds of miles. Mussels, barnacles, sea stars, urchins, rockfishes, and numerous other invertebrates and fish display this early life stage of dispersal. Eventually, the larvae settle onto a rocky shore, reef, or other appropriate habitat, metamorphose into the adult form, and may spend the rest of their lives at that site.

MTiny Larvae Go with the Flow – but Where?

Ecological “Black Box”Scientists know little about where and how far larvae disperse, and it is a mystery how ocean currents link different populations of adults. Individual larvae are extremely small, and most are impossible to follow as they are carried -– possibly over long distances – through the ocean. The flow of

ocean water near coastlines is extraordinarily complex and variable, and larval swimming behaviors mean that scientists cannot assume

that these tiny animals travel as passive particles. Today, the “black box” of larval dispersal represents one of the central challenges

in marine ecology. Ultimately, resolving this challenge will improve resource management by revealing the ecological ties among sites.

PISCO scientists are at the forefront of addressing this challenge. One technique the consortium is developing involves analyzing

natural chemical markers from ocean waters that certain hard body parts of larvae incorporate as they grow. These chemical signatures can serve as a “flight recorder” of where a larva originated and the route it traveled. Other methods include mathematical modeling and genetics for investigating the ecological consequences and spatial patterns of larval dispersal. Coupling all these approaches with a comprehensive program of oceanographic moni-toring, PISCO is generating key insights into larval dispersal. Examples of this research are on the following pages.

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ecological

Using Natural “Flight Recorders” to Track LarvaePISCO scientists have developed a technique of analyzing the chemical “sig-natures” in hard, calcareous body parts of fish and invertebrates to identify the birthplace and dispersal path of individuals. For fish, they use the otolith, a balance structure in the inner ear, and for invertebrates they use the statolith or protoconch. These structures form at birth and grow daily as new layers deposit around the core, like rings in a tree trunk. The layers incorporate trace chemicals from the surrounding seawater, which vary from place to place. Consequently, the layers act as a “flight recorder” of the chemical environment. Analysis of the layers’ chemical signatures can yield detailed information about the larva’s birthplace and dispersal route. PISCO research significantly advances these microchemistry techniques and proves the viabil-ity of this approach for invertebrates and fish.

linkages

Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans

Estuaries vs. Coast: Better Fish Nursery?Some fish species spend the early months of their lives in estuaries or shallow sandy areas of the open coast before moving to deeper waters to join adult populations. For decades, scientists and resource managers have wanted to assess the relative importance of these habitats as “nurseries.” The information could be invaluable for conservation planning and fisheries management, but the challenges of tracking juvenile fishes has hampered this research. Now PISCO/UCSC graduate student Jennifer Brown is using otolith microchemistry to answer this question. Brown has spent three years collecting juvenile English sole and speckled sanddab from seven estuaries and eleven coastal sites from Port San Luis to Bodega Bay, California. Her preliminary data indicate that otoliths can be used successfully to differentiate between fishes that grew up in estuarine and coastal habitats. Next Brown is analyzing otoliths of adult fishes to determine the relative contributions of estuaries and coastal nurseries to adult populations.

Larval Dispersal of Kellet’s WhelkPISCO/UCSB graduate student Danielle Zacherl tested the viability of micro-chemistry as a tool for studying larval dispersal of invertebrates. Zacherl analyzed the chemical signatures in statoliths and larval shells of Kellet’s whelk, a commercially and ecologically important snail of California kelp forests. She discovered that whelks that spent their larval period in the region north of Point Conception, California, show a different chemical signature than those born south of the point. Each whelk is essentially tagged with a chemical marker of its birthplace. With her data, Zacherl is attempting to help decipher why Point Conception is a major biogeographic boundary. Her research establishes the feasibility of using microchemistry in invertebrates and helps lay the groundwork for PISCO’s extensive research into larval dispersal pathways of invertebrates along the West Coast.

Building an “Atlas” of Source PopulationsNow that PISCO scientists have proven the utility and advanced the method-ologies of microchemistry, PISCO principal investigator Robert Warner and many collaborators within and outside the consortium are building an “atlas” of chemical signatures of sites along the California coast. The atlas will enable scientists to find out where the adult fish and invertebrates living at a given site originated as larvae. Were they spawned locally, or did they drift some distance from elsewhere? Eventually this research, along with PISCO’s oceanographic monitoring, could reveal how ocean currents link populations of a single species. Using fishes and invertebrates collected at various sites, PISCO will attempt to identify the actual points of origin for newly arrived individuals. As no one has ever achieved this identification for a purely marine species, this work has important implications for marine ecology and management.

Estuaries like Elkhorn Slough (top) may serve as important nurseries for young speckled sanddab (above) and English sole.

Kellet’s whelk

PISCO is analyzing the chemical signatures of coastal waters.

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PISCO Coastal Connections • Volume 1

ecological linkages

For Marine Reserves, Larval Dispersal a Key FactorLarval dispersal likely plays a critical role in determining the effectiveness of marine reserves as a management and conservation tool. Dozens of previous studies have modeled marine reserves, but few account explicitly for larval transport by ocean currents. PISCO/UCSB scientists Steven Gaines and Brian Gaylord collaborated with John Largier of Scripps Institution of Oceanography to build a population dynamics model for marine creatures with relatively sedentary adults whose larvae are transported both by diffusion and by directional currents. Their findings show that current strength can be a dominant factor determining the success of different configurations of marine reserves. For example, in regions with strong currents, multiple reserves can be markedly more effective than a single reserve of the same total size. Furthermore, marine reserves can significantly outperform the traditional resource management strategies in terms of fisheries yield – and do so with less risk. The results suggest that successful design of reserves may require considerable new efforts, such as those undertaken by PISCO, to examine explicitly the dispersal of young.

DNA Technology Shows Ties among PopulationsWhen individual larvae travel from place to place on ocean currents, they carry records of their family tree in their genes. Adapting technology originally created for the Human Genome Project, PISCO/Mellon Foundation Research Fellow Stephen Palumbi and colleague Francesco Patti at Harvard University are developing a technique that taps these genetic records to assess the degree of ecological linkage between marine populations. The challenge lies in accurately detecting the often-subtle genetic variations from site to site. The magnitude of those differences provides a measure of how isolated the populations are. For an initial test of the technique, the scientists used DNA from sea urchins at Boiler Bay and Cape Arago, Oregon. Their test was successful, and the data indicate that the connection between these two sites is not strong, with only an estimated one or two urchin larvae moving between them each year. Now Palumbi and Patti are using the technology for an intense, large-scale investigation of genetic patterns and ecological linkages of marine populations.

Modeling & GeneticsNew computational and genetic tools shed light on the ecological linkages among marine populations.

To protect fisheries and biodiversity, multiple reserves may prove more effective than a single reserve of the same total size, because of larval dispersal. This factor could be especially important at sites with strong currents, which carry fish and invertebrate larvae longer distances.

Purple sea urchin

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interdisciplinaryresearchtraining&

hinking across the boundaries of traditional academic specialties is essential for scientists working to advance the understanding of coastal oceans. Environmental factors like tem-perature, sunlight, and pounding by waves can have important impacts on marine animals and plants. Stresses on individuals can lead to changes in populations and ecosystems by influencing species’ geographic distributions, behavior, growth rates, longev-

ity, and reproduction. Consequently, scientists must meld physiology and biomechanics with ecology and oceanography to gain comprehensive insight into coastal marine ecosystems. However, few opportunities exist for stu-dents and senior scientists to acquire the appropriate knowledge and master the latest technical skills for such interdisciplinary research.

As one element of its training program, PISCO offers a special Stanford University course that provides scientists from diverse backgrounds with a foundation in biomechanics and physiology, enabling them to incorporate new approaches from these related disciplines into their research. The PISCO course makes contemporary theories and methodologies accessible to ecolo-gists, oceanographers, and conservation biologists, facilitating cross-fertiliza-tion of these scientific fields. Offered in the summer every two years, these month-long training programs at Hopkins Marine Station are led by PISCO/Stanford principal investigators Mark Denny and George Somero. In 1999 and 2001, participants hailed from the United States, Canada, Chile, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

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PISCO Coastal Connections • Volume 1

Physiology & Biomechanics Connect with EcologyAdaptation of animals and plants to the environment plays a pivotal role in ecology and evolution. For scientists to investigate how physical factors – for example temperature, desiccation stress, and wave force – influence species and ecosystems, they need the capabilities to quantify both the environmental variables and the species’ tolerances and responses. What are the maximum and minimum temperatures that a particular species can survive? Where do these limits lie within the conditions actually encountered? What is the optimal temperature for the functioning of life processes in the species? What forces of water motion and pounding by waves can the species withstand? How are the materials and body shape of the species adapted to those wave conditions? From such integration of physiology and biomechan-ics with ecology, scientists can better predict how and where species establish themselves, persist, and succeed.

To learn to conduct such novel interdisciplinary studies, participants in the PISCO courses take part in six full days per week of lectures, field trips, and laboratories that introduce the fundamentals and provide hands-on experience with useful sets of research tools and protocols. The courses emphasize the adaptations of animals and plants to environmental changes over evolutionary, seasonal, and tidal periods, par-ticularly adaptations that can affect the species’ geographic range. Key topics include the physics of water motion along the shore, the evolution and physical limits of body size and shape in the wave-swept environment, the prediction of thermal and desiccation stress, and the influence of turbu-lence on the reproduction of species that emit sperm and eggs into the water. Laboratory and field activities explore techniques of biome-chanics, physiology, biochemistry, and molecu-lar biology that can be used to evaluate the status of individuals in the wild. Among these tools are biochemical indices of physiological stress and DNA-based techniques for studying popula-tion genetics.

By promoting the integration of scientific fields, PISCO’s interdisciplinary training course equips participants with a repertoire of new tools and ideas for advancing the understanding and management of coastal marine ecosystems.

interdisciplinary training & research

Cyberkelp: Testing Biological Materials

PISCO/Stanford graduate student Ben Hale solved a longstanding problem in testing the mechanical properties of biological materials. Such measurements can yield ecological insights such as why a species survives in particular areas of the wave-pounded shoreline.

To ensure the ecological relevance of biomechanical findings, the measurements of material properties must be made in situ (which is often impractical), or the nat-ural stress conditions must be reproduced appropriately in the laboratory. However, often those conditions can be determined only if the material properties are already known.

To address this catch-22, Hale designed a new materials-testing system, which he used to evaluate the biomechanical proper-ties of bull kelp. The so-called “cyberkelp” incorporates a section of the kelp’s stipe into a tension-measuring device controlled by computer software. The program mea-sures the current stress and strain on the stipe and factors that information into real-time calculations to predict subse-quent strains, as if the kelp were under actual ocean waves.

Hale found that under natural conditions the initial stipe stiffness approaches the optimum for minimizing breakage. He esti-mates that bull kelp reaches its breaking point when experiencing 20-foot (6 m) waves. Results from the cyberkelp system were substantially different from those of previous testing methods and demonstrate the importance of incorporating “natural” stresses when measuring properties of biological materials.

Showing kelp linked by ocean waves and ‘waves’ of DNA strands, this sketch by PISCO training course student Kerry Marchinko illustrates the interconnections of physiology, biomechanics, physical forces, and ecology in the ocean.

At Hopkins Marine Station, scientists use a wind tunnel to simulate the forces pro-duced by ocean waves and to explore the impacts on a marine alga.

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sharing scienceTHE

cean fisheries worldwide produce 78 million metric tons of food per year and employ 22 million people, according to a report from the United Nations. But 50 percent of the fisheries have no capacity for increased catches, and another 25 percent are overexploited or have already crashed. Coastal waters like those studied by PISCO host many of the richest – and most imperiled – fisheries and ecosystems.

As traditional strategies fall short, scientists and environmental managers are pursuing new approaches for ensuring sustainable fisheries and healthy eco-systems. One promising tool is the establishment of fully protected marine reserves. These zones in the ocean are protected from fishing, oil drilling, seafloor mining, and other activities that may be detrimental to marine creatures or their habitat. Currently, marine reserves cover less than one percent of U.S. waters.

PISCO is informing these efforts by conducting research to evaluate the effectiveness of marine reserves, to understand the fundamental processes of nearshore ecosystems, and to develop scientific tools for designing reserves. PISCO transfers this scientific understanding of marine reserves directly into practice through partnerships with government agencies, fishermen, and non-governmental organizations engaged in marine conservation initiatives.

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PISCO Coastal Connections • Volume 1

Choosing Reserve Sites:An Improved Method

The beneficial effects of marine reserves on fisheries and ecosystems are spurring government agencies worldwide to desig-nate new reserves. However, the selection of specific sites to include in a reserve network can pose major challenges involv-ing many ecological variables and numerous potential site configurations.

PISCO/OSU graduate student Heather Leslie and her collaborators in a PISCO-led working group at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis developed a tool to help solve this problem. Called a siting algorithm, the interactive computer-based tool uses the available information, both ecological and socioeconomic, to iden-tify all possible configurations of reserve sites to satisfy the desired management objectives. Maps produced by the system enable resource managers and stakeholders to see all the options quickly and accurately, including options that might not have emerged in the typical ad hoc process.

The research demonstrates that often there are many alternative combinations of sites, rather than one ‘best’ way, to achieve a set of conservation goals. The selection of one of the alternatives then can be based on other considerations. Community lead-ers associated with the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in California used the siting tool developed by Leslie and her colleagues to help inform their delib-erations about the placement of marine reserves within the Sanctuary.

sharing the scienceThe Science of Marine ReservesIn one research partnership, PISCO/UCSB science coordinator Jenn Caselle teams with local commercial fishermen and the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary to study reef fishes at a marine reserve at Anacapa Island, California (see photographs, opposite). The program offers a new model for partnerships between scientists and fishermen, and the research provides key information on fishes’ movement patterns from the reserve into surrounding waters, where they could help to sustain fisheries.

To advance the science of marine reserves, PISCO principal investigators Jane Lubchenco and Steven Gaines and PISCO Research Fellow Stephen Palumbi convened a two-year working group of international experts at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). The team conducted extensive studies of reserve design and efficacy, produced a scientific consen-sus statement signed by 161 scientists, and published numerous research papers. Six other PISCO scientists participated in the research. In one of the NCEAS studies, PISCO/UCSB graduate student Ben Halpern analyzed data from more than one hundred marine reserves around the world. It showed that the reserves consistently yielded richer biodiversity and more, larger animals than unprotected surrounding waters. Also, the NCEAS group found that fishes and invertebrates from reserves can spill across the reserve boundaries to boost the populations in nearby fished waters.

Informing Marine PolicyIn addition to its research partnerships, PISCO interacts closely with policy makers, resource managers, and stakeholders involved in marine reserve planning. At the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in California, three PISCO scientists serve on the Science Advisory Panel for the multi-year process of considering the establishment of reserves in the sanctuary. Also in California, PI Steven Gaines sits on the state’s Master Plan Team that supplies scientific guidance for the creation of a statewide network of reserves. PISCO/UCSC and UCSB researchers are working closely with the California Department of Fish and Game and other agencies to develop a long-term statewide monitoring network inside and out-side existing and proposed marine reserves. PISCO/UCSC researchers also collaborate with the National Center for Marine Protected Area Science in outlining criteria for reserve design and evaluation. To the north, PISCO/OSU sci-entists are providing scientific advice to the Oregon Ocean Policy Advisory Council during its evaluation of reserves as a management tool in state waters. PISCO scientists team with the Communication Partnership for Sci-ence and the Sea (COMPASS) to commu-nicate the science of marine reserves to disparate audiences.

Through its numerous science and policy part-nerships, PISCO plays a significant and grow-ing role in advancing and communicating the science of designing, monitoring, and evalu-ating marine reserves.

PISCO/UCSB graduate student Ben Halpern ana-lyzed data from a hundred marine reserves around the world. Comparing results from inside and out-side the reserves, he found that the reserves produced larger populations, more biomass, bigger animals, and richer biodiversity.

Kelp forests provide habitat for numerous fish and inver-tebrates. PISCO develops scientific strategies for ensuring the long-term health of these ecosystems.

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Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO)

For more information:Web site: www.piscoweb.orgE-mail: pisco@piscoweb.org

PISCOOregon State UniversityDepartment of Zoology3029 Cordley HallCorvallis, OR 97331Tel (541) 737-8645Fax (541) 737-3360

PISCOUniversity of California, Santa CruzLong Marine Laboratory100 Shaffer RoadSanta Cruz, CA 95060Tel (831) 459-5022Fax (831) 459-3383

PISCOUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraMarine Science InstituteSanta Barbara, CA 93106-6150Tel (805) 893-5175Fax (805) 893-8062

PISCOStanford UniversityHopkins Marine StationOceanview BoulevardPacific Grove, CA 93950Tel (831) 655-6243Fax (831) 375-0793

Image Credits: Peter Allen (p. 7), Gary Allison (back cover), Shane Anderson (2, 13), Lydia Bergen (1), Morgan Bond (5, cover), Jennifer Brown (12), Brad Doane (16, back cover), Lee Freidenburg (back cover), Jared Figurski (4), Brian Grantham (6), Heather Leslie (1, back cover), Dave Lohse (cover, back cover), Erin Maloney (5, 9), Christine McConnell (17, inside cover, back cover), Bruce Menge (6, 9, cover, inside cover, back cover), Joanna Nelson (1, 14, 15), Chantell Royer (11), Diana Steller (12), Peter Taylor (10, 12, cover, back cover), Michael Webster (inside cover), Megan Williams (inside cover), Spencer Wood (15, back cover), Danielle Zacherl (12).

Paper stock contains 50% recycled content, 15% post-consumer content. Printed with linseed oil-based inks.