|
About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Subscribe |
|
|
Genetic contact between reef fish across the 5000 km Pacific divide Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute July 5, 2006 Reef fish share genetic connections across what Darwin termed an 'impassable barrier', 5000km of deep ocean separating the eastern and central Pacific, according to a report by Smithsonian scientists in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Luck affects who makes it across and when "We didn't find genetic evidence for any oceanographic or geological events that separated populations such as a major change in currents or the sinking of an underwater platform that could have served as a stepping stone," Lessios points out. "If that were the case, several species would have shown coincident times of separation." Instead, the researchers consider that fish larvae cross the barrier often enough to maintain genetic connections, but in a very haphazard and infrequent fashion, such that speciation did occur in most cases, but was prevented from happening in others. Two-way gene flow Conventional wisdom held that there was little larval movement from West to East and no movement from East to West across the divide until a recent study by co-author Robertson et al. indicated that about 20% of transpacific fish invaded from East to West. "The current study provides more meat for that barbeque. If you look at westward currents, they look as good as or better then eastward currents for moving larvae between populations. People were just focused on eastward movement because El Nino currents go that way," according to Robertson.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), a unit of the Smithsonian Institution, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, furthers our understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems. This is a news release from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Recommend this article? Comments? >Digg this article | >Hugg this article | Contact News options
Tags: Coral Reefs oceans earth science Fish green News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing
|
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 
Photos HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright mongabay 2010 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect, an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region. Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant. |
