- [Richard] Can you hear me?
- [Claire] We can. Thank you, Richard.
- Okay, great.
Awesome, yeah. Thanks for joining me.
I'm glad you guys are interested in my talk.
Yeah, so, I'll be giving you a little talk about the research that I do.
I'm using genetics to look at connectivity across the Hawaiian Archipelago.
Just to give you a little background about myself
Yeah I recently received my PhD in zoology at the University of Hawaii.
This is an image of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, where I do my research.
This is the marine station for the University of Hawaii.
And I'm pretty fortunate to be able to do my research here.
As you can see, it's our own little island where we get to do all of our own research.
The whole island is it dedicated just to marine science.
and we have access to all the reefs of Kaneohe Bay.
So this is Kaneohe Bay on the eastern side of the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands
and I'm part of the lab run by Dr. Brian Bowen and Rob Tonin.
And our research looks at how biodiversity is generated in the marine realm.
And one of the larger components that we use is genetics to be able to answer some of these questions.
So this is just a brief history of how genetics has evolved.
So, you know, going back all the way to the eighteen hundreds
we have Darwin who published on his theory of evolution by natural selection.
And there's been progress since then but it wasn't until maybe around the 1950s
where it's really started to amplify in terms of the technology
and the amount of resources and data that we were able to get from using genetics.
So, in the 1950s we have the double helix was finally described.
in 1995 the first genome was sequenced.
And then up till now in about 2006 he started using Illumina sequencing
which is being able to see sequence large parts of the genome
and that accounts for greater than more than 70% of the current market and in terms of genetic studies.
and here's just a graph that shows how much the cost of doing genomic sequencing
has declined.
Since starting in 2001, we had
it costed maybe a hundred million dollars to be able to sequence the genome.
Whereas we fast forward to now, it only costs a few thousand dollars.
and so the ability and availability to be able to sequence
do genomic sequencing which provides much more data for us to have.
much more resolution in terms of the being able to answer some of the questions
that were interested in.
Whether or not they're evolution, or for what I do, where I'm looking at dispersal and connectivity
which I'll get into further.
So there's a variety of ways that you could use genetics
to answer questions regarding biodiversity.
and so you can look at evolutionary theory, you can identify different species
and basic species as an example, is something that I've used in the past.
but again I'm more interested in looking at connectivity and it's personal patterns of marine fishes.
And you could use genetics for a for a variety of different organisms.
So this is just a really small subset of the species that we've looked at in my lab.
So we've looked at the genetics of sea cucumbers
it's the cross Crown of Thorns Star
grasses, Niba tones, lobsters, Opihi-- or limpets.
fishes.
and so there's really no limit to what you could or what organisms you could work on
to be able to do genetics and
depending on the question that you're interested in addressing.
And as I mentioned, I'm particularly interested in looking at coral reef fishes.
And this is a really diverse group of organisms.
They're really important to the ecosystem.
But, more importantly, they're really important for food availability.
A large part of the global population relies on marine resources for the primary source of protein.
So it's important for us to properly understand what is occurring within this group
to ensure that they the ecosystem is healthy
since they're large a component of a healthy ecosystem
But also to ensure long-term sustainability for these nations or communities
that rely on these organisms for for sustenance.
So, as I mentioned, I'm interested in understanding connectivity
and by connectivity what it can do is it can help us provide insights and some mechanisms
that influence evolution.
So we could look at identifying areas that might encourage evolution to, to occur.
So if we know that there's two areas that are separating
they might diverge into separate species.
But it's also useful to inform management and conservation strategies.
And the way it's able to do that is we can identify areas that are barriers to dispersal.
We can also identify areas that are vulnerable to over-fishing, for example
and we can identify particular management units.
And one of the things that I'm interested in doing or that I've done with my research
is characterizing source-sink population.
So by source populations what I mean are populations that are the origin
and they're the source for receiving other areas
and the sink populations are receiving recruitment from their source populations.
And I'm gonna go through a quick diagram of sort of what I mean by that.
When I'm talking about source-sink populations and genetic connectivity.
But first we need to discuss or we need to know sort of the life cycle of marine fishes.
And this might be review for a lot of people, but I want to quickly go over it.
So we have the adults and they spawn typically, a lot of marine fishes do free spawning
where they form these really large aggregations
and they throw their gametes into the water column
where fertilization occurs
and then the larvae form and they're possibly floating around the water column for a while.
And then they form its or early larvae and then smaller versions of the adults
and they finally settle out of the water column.
But it's at is this planktonic stage, when they're in this early larvae late larvae stage where
the source of dispersal is actually occurring.
'Cause as adults, once they settle down that's the area that they settle down in
and it's where they stay.
So this larval stage, which can last between 40 and 60 days,
is an area or the time frame where they're able to move long distances as a species.
And here's a quick cartoon of what I'm, what I mean when I'm discussing the population connectivity.
So we have this hypothetical fish population here on the eastern side of Oahu.
This is Kanohe Bay,
They spawn and the larvae are released and are floating around passively.
And then they form little, they turn into little larvae and then they swim north
head to the northern part of Oahu where they finally settle out of the water column.
So we would call the Kaneohe a population as a source population
and the northern population as a sink population
because they're the ones receiving recruitment from Kaneohe.
What's important or where the issue arises is
if the source population is decimated for some reason.
So let's just say as an example they're over-fished
So the Kaneohe population is over fished, the downstream effect is that the
northern population will also decline because they're dependent on Kaneohe
to receive recruitment for that area.
And you can imagine that this network is much more complex
but it's important to understand or identify these disposal pathways
if we want to identify areas I might be vulnerable for over-fishing
or identify areas that are just under threat.
Another issue that could arise is the presence of barriers to gene flow
and this could be cause for numerous reasons
so it could be a freshwater outflow, so the fish wouldn't be able to cross it.
So this is just this sort of barrier that just exists, it could be something geological,
there might be currents or oceanic currents that are preventing larvae from being able to
get past that area.
But a lot of these things are not obvious.
But we can identify them and we can see the signal when we look at the genetics.
So when we see barriers in a terrestrial system there they're often very easy to identify.
So this picture, just as an example, this is a large river, I believe it's the Amazon River
and so you could just think of maybe a species of snails on either side.
If we look at the genetics and we see that they're very different genetically
then we could identify that it's likely the river, itself, is acting as a barrier.
But you could also look at it in a larger sense.
So you can look at two populations on either side of a mountain.
The mountain itself is acting as a barrier
or if you're looking at different populations of let's say a butterfly
on an island, on different islands.
The islands themselves, there's just distance too much distance between them
where they're not able to cross it.
and as I mention in the marine world realm, it's not so obvious.
So the prevailing idea was that because these organisms are possibly flying around
or floating around, that they're getting everywhere.
But the more and more that we look at the genetics
and investigate these systems, we see that there's a larger number of barriers that exist
than previously thought.
And so, for my research, I'm looking interested in looking at connectivity and identifying
these barriers or pathways of dispersal across a variety of different spatial scales.
So part of my research data from my dissertation looked across entire species ranges.
So a species that's an accomplice in Indian Ocean in the Pacific Ocean
I looked at the scale of an archipelago.
So across the Hawaiian archipelago and also with a scale with an island.
And so for the purpose of this talk, I'll be talking about the range ride
and I'll just be focusing on the archipelago and Island scale.
and as I go through when you consider the implications in terms of conservation
and management how they can be applied to confirm inform these these methods.
so looking at the archipelago scale.
So all of my research for this is occurred in Hawaii.
And so when we think of Hawaii-- for a lot a lot of people when we think of Hawaii,
we think of the the main Hawaiian Islands.
These are the eight islands that people would go on vacation to. like the Big Island,
Honolulu, here on Oahu, Maui, Kauai.
But the Hawaiian archipelago actually extends quite much more than just what is typically known.
So we have the main Hawaiian Islands which is more touristy areas.
But northwest of that is the or the northwestern Hawaiian Islands
which in 2006 was designated Papahanaumokuakea marine national monument.
So this is a protected area that encompasses about 2600 kilometers
and so if you're to superimpose that on the United States
you can get a sense for how large of an area this is
So if you put the Big Island on New Orleans,
the last Island cure way and the for the Hawaiian archipelago will sit on top of Las Vegas.
So this is not a trivial amount in terms of the area that it covers. This is a large area
and makes up a substantial portion of the state of Hawaii.
And so there's kind of two areas of the Hawaiian archipelago.
So there's the main Hawaiian Islands, as I mentioned, these are the high islands.
They're typically thought of. So you have these big mountain ranges,
there's a lot of people that live on these islands,
there's a lot of waterfalls, a lot of freshwater.
But as you go north west and as you enter the Papahanaumokuakea marine national monument
you get to these low-lying Islands or atolls
that in some areas don't sit more than ten feet above sea level,
And so and there's no inhabitants and these are in in these areas.
And so this is a really pristine area and I felt very fortunate to be able to
conduct my research in this area, just because it's there's no people there.
And because of that, the reefs themselves are largely intact.
The fish communities are really diverse, there's a lot of abundance, the coral reefs are really
healthy, and it provides just importance of having that protection. To be able to have this area
that is just off-limits to people.
But for my research, I was interested in knowing
does the protected area, Papahanaumokuakea, does that act as a source
of recruitment for the main Hawaiian Islands.
So the main Hawaiian Islands because it's overpop-- or because there's a large population
and people fish recreationally
they fish for sustenance
there's the prospect of that this region might be over-fished at some point.
so I'm curious to know, does the Marine National Monument act as a source
to see Hawaiian at the main Hawaiian Islands, if they're over-fished.
But conversely, what's the influence of the main Hawaiian Islands to the Marine National Monument.
Are they acting as a source
and the the monuments acting as the sink in this area.
Or is there just a clear barrier between the two. Are they just really completely separate regions
that don't have any interactions with each other.
And so for my research I, we, I,
got to be at sea for about 30 days, at least, and on three different occasions.
So we started on Oahu and
we went to all the different islands across the entire Hart Hawaiian Archipelago.
So from the Big Island all the way to Kure Atoll.
And so we stay on this ship and it's a pretty cool ship is.
There's a bunch of rooms for scientists.
We're fed pretty well.
And we have these little small boats that we do all of our research on.
So we'll, every morning at 7:00 we'll have a briefing of the objectives for the day
and by 8 o'clock all the scientists go on these small red boats.
and we remain at sea for until around 4 or 5 o'clock
where you go back to the larger boat and
we get back on and that's where we process all of our samples
And so when we go out to collect,
we only need a really small piece of tissue from the fish in order to
to get a genetic identity that were interested in.
And so it's only the size of maybe the head of a nail.
So we collect the tissue, we extract the DNA,
And so this isn't all occurring on the boat. We actually take this back to the lab here on Oahu.
So we extract the DNA, we do some other methods
and we finally send it off to get the to the sequencing machine.
And we get an output that gives us a visual representation of what the DNA looks like.
And from that we're able to analyze our data.
And this is just an example of sort of just to easily conceptualize what I'm talking about.
So if you're familiar with 23andMe, it's really what we do in terms of looking at genetic connectivity
So 23andMe, you submit your DNA
and the site assigns you to some region of the world that you're most likely originating from.
And so, in this example, this individual has a genetic signature that
belongs both to Europe and also to East Asia.
But it's because each of these regions of the worlds have has a unique genetic signature
that we can trace an individual back to where they originated from.
and we're essentially doing that in terms of fish.
Instead of looking at it from a global scale we're looking at it from an island scale.
So each island has a unique genetic signature or or may have a unique just a genetic signature.
and we're trying to figure out if it's one large cosmopolitan group
or if each island is unique.
And this is another example doing using population genetics.
So we have here we have four hypothetical populations.
Each circle represents an individual and each color represents the gene.
So there's the blue gene and an orange gene.
And so in this example population one is largely blue and population four is mostly orange.
But as you move from left to right
blue the blue gene gets, becomes less and less prominent.
so what we would say in this example is
population one is genetically distinct from population four
the population one is more similar to population two
populations two is more similar population three
and population three is most similar to population four.
Here's another just more concrete example.
So population 1 is all blue, population is all 4, populations 2 & 3 have the presence of the blue gene
but it's largely overrun by orange.
And what we would say if we looked at this from a, in terms of population genetics
perspective is that there's a genetic break that's occurring between population 1 and the rest of the
population.
If that break didn't exist, we would see blue more prominent in the rest of the populations.
And so my my lab group has done a lot of research across the Hawaiian Archipelago.
and so we've looked at at this stage is probably more than 50 different species.
And from these species we found common breaks that are found
in different regions.
So, starting from the right, we see a break between the Big Island and Maui.
For in this example 16 of the 24 species that we looked at,
there's a smaller break between Lanai and Oahu.
We also see a break between Oahu and Kauai.
and then as we move forward north west there's a break that occurs somewhere around Nihoa
and French Frigate Shoals
And then there's this large segment where all the islands are genetically homogeneous
meaning they're all really similar to each other so there's no break
until you get to around Pearl and Hermes.
and around Pearl and Hermes.
And so this is common across multiple species
which indicates that there's something in the ecosystem that is causing these breaks.
so between Hawaii and Maui
the prevailing idea, or the accepted idea is that
there's just way too much current.
So between that those two islands it drops to about a thousand meters.
So it's just too deep, there's too much current, so any larvae that is trying to cross it
will just get lost.
There's also eddies so these circular ocean circulation patterns.
So if a larvae were get caught in it he will just remain in this sort of tornado
in the middle of the ocean.
so it's not able to get to either area.
And then as you move along there's other reasons that that could occur.
But so for this study a lot of the a lot of the research incorporated for this study used
just one single marker.
So one genetic marker so just think of it as maybe looking at the gene for eye color.
So it's just one simple marker that was to used.
So for my research I'm incorporating genetics-- or genomics.
So I'm interested in looking at the across the entire genome of an organism
to see whether or not this pattern holds .
And what I'm saying genomics what I mean is that instead of looking at one single marker
I'm now looking at literally thousands of different markers.
So not just the marker genetic marker for eyesight
or for eye color but for everything that your genes are made of.
And having more that information also provides more resolution for identifying genetic patterns.
And so for my research I looked at two different species.
So we have Manini which is which is what it's locally known as
so Acanthurus triostegus
and Ctenocheatus strigosus which is locally known as as Kole
So these are two species of surgeon fishes.
The refer to a surgeon fishes because they have to have this scalpel that's right at the base of their tail
that they use as defense.
and because of part of the same family
I wanted to compare whether or not patterns that I see are indicative of this family in general.
So there are PLD or pelagic larval duration.
So the amount of time that they stay in the water column as larvae.
It's kind of similar so for a Manini it can go up to about 70 days
wherein Kole it can go about to 60
And so Manini is down throughout the entire Indo-Pacific.
So it's found throughout all of the Indian Ocean and all of the Pacific.
And Kole is a Hawaiian endemic so it's only found Hawaii.
So having that sort of different distribution pattern I also found interesting
or wanted to investigate how that would influence their dispersal connectivity.
And so for Manini is, an example, because it's found throughout two oceans
it must be highly dispersive or I would predict that would be highly dispersive.
meaning that the islands might be more highly connected
than say Kole, which is a Hawaiian endemic.
So what's but could have happened with Kole and other Hawaiian endemics is that
it was its sister species or the most the most closely related species that exists there
is found in the Pacific Ocean.
Some random event brought it to Hawaii and it speciated into its own species
where it became Kole.
But it must be low dispersing because it's not able to get back to the Pacific
and the Pacific wasn't able to retain a connection with Hawaii.
So it allowed it to evolve into its own different species.
And so I'm my question is do these species show similar connectivity patterns
across the Hawaiian Archipelago.
And so previous study that's been done looking at Kole
collected samples from across the Hawaiian Archipelago.
This is by Jeff (?)
And it found widespread connectivity.
So from the Big Island all the way to Kure for the most part it was one large population
except for between Pearl and Hermes Maro Reef
So for some reason that we still don't have an explanation for,
the populations there are genetically distinct from everywhere else on Hawaii.
So if you were to take an individual from Pearl and Hermes it's more closely related to Maro Reef.
if you take a (?) Kure it's more closely related to individual on the Big Island of Hawaii
than it is to s Pearl and Hermes.
And again we don't have a really good explanation for that.
But it is a pattern that we do see in other species.
And remember this is taken off of just using the single genetic marker.
So when we do a genomics framework
what we find is that each different island is its own unique population.
And what this means, in terms of conservation or management
is that if you were to over-fish the Big Island, that's it. It's not coming back.
if you]were to over-fish Maui, it's not going to be reseeded by anywhere else.
and that's where every single island across Hawaiian Archipelago.
So in this circumstance the Papahanaumokuakea is not reseeding the main Hawaiian Islands.
And more so, each of the islands in the main Hawaiian Islands has to be able to manage it
on their own.
If they want to ensure a long term sustainability.
Now moving forward with Manini.
A previous study that was done only looked at the Big Island and Oahu
but they found that those were distinct populations.
And so I again incorporated genomics framework
and what we found shows a really different pattern than what we see in Kole.
So here in Manini,
we found that in the main Hawaiian Islands, each of the islands are genetically distinct.
And then there's this large area from Nihoa all the way up to Midway Atoll
that is one large genetic population.
And then you have this population at Kure that is genetically distinct.
and we also have Johnston Atoll which we got samples for which is directly like
five hundred miles south of Hawaii.
And we that shows Laura
that shows to be grouping with a large area in the northwest Line Islands.
This group is grouping with that group.
And so that might be a source of biodiversity from the rest of the Pacific.
So the rest of the Pacific is extreme.
Grouping with Johnston Atoll
and at Johnson Atoll is grouping with the large area in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
But again, in terms of management, what this means is that the main Hawaiian Islands are
not being reseeded by the Papahanaumokuakea.
And so for at least these species we need to look at it on the scale of an island
in terms of identifying management strategies or conservation strategies for the
long-term sustainability for both of these species.
And so just to quickly conclude,
genomics provides does provide a finer scale resolution for identifying connectivity patterns
for both of these species.
For Kole, we found Island by Island isolation.
And this is the first account that we see this in a Hawaiian fish.
And in Manini, we see widespread connectivity across the
northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
And island by Island isolation in the main Hawaiian Islands.
And as I mentioned, so the the main Hawaiian Islands,
both of these species are separate populations from the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
And so regardless of the protections of Papahanaumokuakea,
they're not going to be reseeded by that protected region.
So scaling down to the island,
by going to a different Island scale, we require a much finer resolution.
So we know based off of my research looking at it from an archipelago
that each island is distinct.
But you might even have more patterns or more connectivity
finer resolution connectivity patterns at an island scale.
And so the way we can do that is doing what we call a parentage analysis.
And so a parentage analysis is it's really what it sort of sounds like.
You're it's really similar to a paternity test.
So if you guys are familiar with Maury Povich, this is a steady topic that he has on his show
where so for a parentage analysis you have DNA from the father
and if you have the child you can determine whether or not they're related to each other,
And that's exactly what we're doing for fishes.
And so the purpose of identifying this fine scale resolution or at least for the Hawaiian Islands
is because there's a lot of fishing pressure, particularly on Oahu.
and the fishing regulations are not really regulated.
so having lack of regulations
and that about a third of the populations of Hawaii participate in recreational fishing
just provides a pretty steady source of pressure on marine resources.
and so when and when I say recreational fishing what I'm referencing is
fishing that's done for sport, fishing that's done for for leisure, and fishing that's done for sustenance.
So people that use it to put dinner so for-- to put food on their plate
and it's estimated at about a third of the total catch of fishes
is attributed to recreational harvest.
So as I mentioned, this isn't trivial pressure that's put on these on the marine
these marine resources.
And for Hawaii, particularly, because the fisheries aren't heavily regulated
what could happen is that it could lead to over-fishing.
and for a community that uses these sources, as a source of sustainability
it could prohibit the long term viability for these resources. perfectly for future generations.
And the build ultimately leads to the inability to maintain food security.
So I've been working with a working group that the fished glow
and that involves multiple scientists from the University of Hawaii
where were identifying connectivity patterns
across the windward side for the eastern side of Oahu.
But we've taken it just beyond the genetic framework.
So we've also incorporated oceanographic models
we've looked at the ecology
and we're also working with Conservation International
to look at what's happened to the fish after they're taken.
Where do they end up, who's eating them,
are they being sold, are they being handed off to their friends and family.
So we're trying to look at the where the fish are going
from once they're spawned to once their consumed.
And so for my portion of this as I'm interested in looking at the genetics aspect of it.
and this is a project that was initiated by Native Hawaiian community leaders
because they wanted to better understand how connectivity is
on the at least the eastern side of Oahu.
So they can begin implementing community based management.
So rather than waiting for the state or other other laws to be passed
or trying to do a ground-up effort where the community starts regulating fishing practices.
And so for this we're look I used Manini as my study specimen.
and so this species identified by community leaders as an important food fish.
And it's abundant throughout Hawaii
and it's heavily targeted by recreational fishers.
So at any point you could go to a beach here on Oahu
if you just wait around long enough you'll see somebody coming out with a bunch of Manini
on that based speared.
And so this is model based off of oceanographics.
This was done by a Conor Roman and Margaret McManess.
So each dot represents a single larvae.
Each color represents where it originated from
and you're seeing what's happening over a course of what's predicted to be their
their time at the larval stage.
So what you could quickly see is that a lot of the larvae, it really got swept offshore
So those will likely die. To they're not going to contribute to the next generation.
Although, there is a steady source steady amount of larvae that are hanging along the coastline.
And if you look within Kaneoh Bay in particular,
the yellow part or the southern part of the bay that's all being-- it's not moving.
It's all staying within the bay.
So a lot of the larvae that originates in the bay are staying within the bay.
And then if I were to continue this long enough you'll see some of the larvae from Kailua
sloshing into Kaneohe there.
And and vice versa. A lot of the Kaneohe Bay starts wrapping around so the Kailua group.
But looking at these type of models can give us a prediction
of what we would see in terms of the genetics once we conduct our parentage analysis.
And it helps us identify areas that we wanted to concentrate on in terms of
trying to focus for our sampling efforts.
Okay, and so the goal of looking at it from the eye on the scale
is to identify a dispersal pathways
and particularly the source-sink population.
And also identify areas that are vulnerable for over-fishing.
And so we collected from multiple areas around the island of Oahu.
and also within different patch reefs of Kaneohe Bay.
Sorry, the right side is an image of Kaneohe Bay.
The blue is just shallow shallow water so something-- or less than 15 feet.
Until you hit land. And yes so we collected from different patch reefs around that area.
And so from the roughly 1200 samples that we collected from,
we were able to assign 69 juveniles back to their parents.
so about 11 percent success rate in doing so.
and this is a general pattern of-- or this is what we've determined.
So, there's a lot going on here so let me just quickly introduce to you what you're looking at.
So each line represents a pathway of dispersal.
So as I mentioned beginning, we know that the adults don't move that much
and so the dispersal stage occurs at the lar-- the dispersal occurs at the larval stage.
so if we know where the adults is from and we collect their child,
we can draw a line saying that those two areas are absolutely, 100% connected.
And that's what we're seeing here.
So each dotted line or dashed line represents one event where we found one adult
that if you follow the line where the aerial arrow finally ends at,
that's where the lar-- their child settled at.
The solid lines represent the defense all our lines are two to three events
and the thicker lines are more than, greater than 14 individuals.
Were shown to be to have that dispersal pathway.
And then you also have these red boxes
and these boxes indicate self recruitment.
And what that means is that the adult was found in that area
and the child was found in that same area.
so the the child never left the area that it was spawned.
And so you can see the overall pattern
is that everything is ending up on the eastern side of Oahu.
So the southern part of Oahu a lot of its wrapping around and ending up on the eastern side
But if you follow a lot of the patterns
you'll see the majority of individuals are actually entering Kaneohe Bay.
Also you can see that despite the fact that we collected from the western and northern side,
there wasn't a lot of recovery for parents or their juveniles
or a lot of assignments of juveniles back to the parents.
And there's a couple of reasons that we predict to be the cause for this.
So we have two really strong currents that wrap around Oahu.
So we have the Hawaii Lee Current which runs south to northwest
across the western side of Oahu
and the North Hawaiian Ridge Current which runs north of Oahu.
And what we predict is that these currents are strong enough
for that any individual that is spawned in the western or northern side
is likely getting swept offshore.
And this wasn't is not going to hold for every individual because we do see Manini
on in those regions.
But the overall pattern is likely anything that spawn is getting swept offshore.
so for future research what we'd want to do is collect from Kauai
and see whether or not we're able to recover juvenile and parents from Kauai.
And so looking into Kaneohe Bay,
again we found six instances of local retention within Kaneohe Bay.
So the species or individuals that respond in the area stayed in Kaneohe Bay.
and we had two instances of dispersal outside that originated from Kaneohe Bay
that went northwards.
But you can see that about 30-- 37 individuals that were originated outside of Kaneohe Bay
entered Kaneohe Bay.
and so what telling us is that
for Kaneohe Bay, it's relying it's reliant on other populations outside of Kaneohe Bay
for a sustainable population, particularly these two areas of Kailua, right here.
And Laie so Laie from the north and Kailua from the South.
Those are the two populations of at large or largest influences of recruitment in Kaneohe Bay.
So if we went to inform proper- if my recommendation would for management would be
if we want to preserve the population of Kaneohe Bay,
we need to work with communities in Kailua and Laie
because those are the source populations for the individuals that we see in Kaneohe Bay.
And what we can also see from looking at an island scale
is that the majority of larvae don't disperse far.
So the despite the ability-- so despite the fact that they're in the water column
or have a potential to be in the water column for up to 70 days,
they're really not moving that far.
And there's a lot of indication of local retention what just sort of
provides further evidence that they're not moving.
And on the eastern side of Oahu it's a source of recruitment for a large parts of the island itself.
and and Kaneohe Bay in particular is dependent on a recruitment from outside of the bay.
So by looking across different spatial scales,
we're able to answer a couple of different questions.
So looking at it from the archipelago scale,
you can see that genomics provides a finer scale resolution.
And we can also see that the main Hawaiian Islands are separate populations
from the northwestern off Hawaiian Islands.
And the particular Papahanaumokuakea.
And then looking at it from the island scale,
we can identify even finer scale pathways of dispersals
and origins of recruitment and we can provide it on an island level
what we would need to do in terms of management and conservation to protect this resource.
And to sort of wanted to wrap that up or that aspect up and just say that
there's a lot of threats that are currently happening in our world.
so over-fishing, overpopulation, this is an example of Waikiki Beach,
there's a lot of offshore pollutants that are entering our water systems,
and the reefs themselves are just degradated all around.
so the main Hawaiian Islands this is a very, in the lower left corner of the screen,
it's just a good example of what you would see.
so a lot of the reefs here are dead.
And so it's important to with all the changes that are currently happening
in addition to climate change
to find areas or find appropriate methods to protect the resources that we have.
And just to bring awareness to a lot of the threats that are occurring in our world.
And so just on the lighter note,
one of the fun things that I like to talk about are just general problems
in the field that we encounter.
So from a genetics perspective,
there's a lot of things that we encounter that
I don't know if a lot of people are inherently aware of
when it comes to doing genetics research research.
So one of the biggest issues that we find is that there's this mis-identifications in the field.
So I presented two species that look pretty similar,
but just because they look similar might not meet up with the same species.
So I wanted to do a quick example and I have a poll question
I presented so, Hannah, if you want to get that ready.
what I want to propose to you is how many species do you see.
and this is a group of cardinalfish is what we're looking at
and
- I'll give the audience time to see if they can figure out how many species before launching the poll.
- So yeah, so
when we're in the water and we're collecting
we really don't we only have a very limited amount of time to collect the species that we're interested in.
And if you're not familiar with your study organism
or the intricacies that the differences between the different species,
you might collect the wrong species.
And since we're looking at genetics,
if you introduce it that's the wrong species instead of genetics portion,
it'll really mess up the patterns that you're gonna see.
So I'll give you time to think about it.
You tell me how many species you see.
- We are at sixty percent of people voting. I'll give it a few more seconds.
All right.
We are at eighty percent of people voting.
I'll share the results.
Richard, how do you think they did?
Most people think that there's three and four species.
And I'm really curious. I wish we're in person because I'm curious what what it is about the
those images that would make you think that.
But, the answer is three species.
So those are the three different species that exist.
So I'll tell you what what it is that causes or where you go you can identify these differences.
So in the upper left corner you in the blue you have one species.
well looking at the top row there's three different species there.
One of the bigger ones, at least for me, is a position of that dot that's on the tail.
So in the leftmost one it's a dot that's right cent-- right in the center.
And the middle one it's offset above the lateral line.
And in the right one, it's actually kind of off-center if you look closely
it's not as the fine of the circle. Sort of sort of like fades out as you move away from it.
But addition to that circle you can look at the lateral line.
So the lateral line on the left left left individual starts out thick and it tapers out.
Same with the one in the middle, but the one on the right,
it doesn't taper out. It's a solid line all the way through.
So understanding or just being aware of the subtle differences
it's important when you're collecting individuals for genetic analysis.
But in addition to this group, this so this is a family called cardinalfish.
They're nocturnal fishes.
So you only really see them at night.
And so the other problem I have with this group
is that at night they all lose all those color powder those color patterns.
So they're also known as iridescent fish.
So they're iridescent at night.
So if you go out at night, you wouldn't see those dots.
You wouldn't really see the lateral line
and so you have to look at some other differences.
So in the lower right corner,
there's if you look at the dorsal fin, before the first dorsal fin,
the color is some can sometimes be like brown or yellow or or or orange.
That's not apparent on the other two.
Whereas if I looked at the other two at night,
I wouldn't be able to know what species I'm looking at.
But yeah, I thought that was a fun exercise.
In addition, there could be incorrect labeling.
So we collect-- it's rare where where we go into the field and we're looking at one species in particular.
We're usually collecting hundreds of different species.
And they all go into these little small tubes
and we don't see the fish themselves. We only see a piece of their fin.
So if you label the tube wrong and send us the wrong species, I'm not going to know that
until way way way down
and we're doing the analysis and I see that there's something wrong going on.
For this individual is a different species from the rest of my samples that I'm working on.
Another problem is doing is inadequate sample sizes.
So you don't want-- you can't just use one individual to characterize the genetics for a population.
So just as an example you can't take one individual from Germany
and say that he's representative of all the individuals in Germany.
See what you do is you would take multiple samples from across different areas of Germany.
And that's how 23andMe works is you're taking
a pool of a bunch of individuals in the region
and getting an idea of the genetic diversity that exists in that area.
And we also want to make sure that the DNA remains stable.
so at times we're at sea for 12 hours a day,
so the heat itself could degrade the DNA.
so you have to have the proper preservation solution and avoid extreme heat.
And there's also the prospect of contamination.
There's been several times where I've amplified like an ant or a butterfly
or even like my own my own or a human DNA.
and when I when I've done my my lab experiments.
So with just an addition to showing you how genetics could be used in terms of management,
I, I wanted to highlight that genetics is that useful to for addressing a variety of questions.
I didn't really go into the aspects of how it could be used for evolutionary
or informing evolutionary theory
or and identify mechanisms that promote evolution.
But I hope I showed that it is a tool to properly
to be able to inform management conservation at least for marine resources.
And as technology increases our ability answer these questions and identify these patterns
just to become more more robust.
And that's kind of it. I do want to thank the the National Marine Sanctuaries
for all of the support. So
people interested in joining or entering grad school,
the Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship is an awesome program to be a part of.
I've gained so many skills from it
and it's a really great network of people to be working with.
And and that's it. And I don't have time for questions.
- Yeah, we have time for some questions.
And thank you so much, Richard.
We have a question coming in from Kim.
and she is wondering how different, in terms of percentage, do the species have to be
to consider them separate.
And can they interbreed?
So percentage is different depending on the gene that you're looking at.
So a common gene that was used to to look at differences of species
would be
it's called C-O-1 set up from oxide--
The CO1. That's the common and historically is being used
and it different for different groups too. It's a really complicated question to ask.
To answer. So for fishes is about two percent difference
would be enough to say that they're different species.
But it wouldn't be simply looking at genetics, either.
What you'd be you would also want to know sort of the ecology
the individual. So do they overlap? Are they found in the same region? Can they breed?
So species that are closely related can breed, sometimes.
And that's where you get hybrids. And that's another area that I work in.
and
But it doesn't happen all of the time.
So it's that's a really complex complex question to answer because
it largely depends on the group that you're working with.
So as another example is I've worked with a group of Angela fishes.
and
if you look at the genetics or less than one percent different,
but physically they are completely different,
they don't look anything alike.
So then the question, you know, and depending on how you define a species
comes into play as well.
So I propose for that circumstance that they were subspecies.
Rather than trying to say that they're actually two very different.
Because they have the ability to interbreed,
they just don't encounter each other in the wild.
And they're very different physically.
so you could look at them and say that they're different but the genetics wouldn't tell you that.
- Thank you for that, Richard.
And we have another question coming in from Renee
and it's actually two parts so maybe you'll be able to bring up the research she's requesting.
Now, but if not, we can try to send it out after the recording.
She is wondering: Have you identified any common trait in fish species
that are able to cross the barrier between the Big Island and Maui?
And then the second question is: Is there, can you provide a list of the 24 species you looked at
in determining that barrier and which crossed, versus which didn't.
- Yeah, so I, I don't have the list on hand, but I'm happy to send that out.
and that list has been updated quite a bit so I can maybe add that to the list as well.
But in terms of common features for species that are able to cross,
the biggest one is that they're pelagic fishes.
or pelagic. It's not even fishes, but they're pelagic. So
they have the ability to swim fast and strong.
So an example would be like: dolphins, sharks, there's Jacks.
So a lot of the larger organisms that aren't influenced by the the large currents
that exist between the different regions.
But those would be to the-- that would be probably the main main trait.
- Great, thank you so much, Richard. That those are the questions that we have gotten so far.
So with that I'm gonna hand it back over to Claire to wrap up the presentation and
thank you again, Richard. That was great.
- You're welcome.
- Thanks so much, Richard. Very informative.
And I just do a few wrap up things here.
So if you have colleagues that perhaps registered or dismiss this completely
or if you yourself wanna see the archive of today's presentation,
you can worry about writing down that long government URL.
It'll be sent to you in a follow-up email.
And it usually takes us about a week to get the archive posted online.
And most certainly if you have any specific questions for Richard
that weren't put into today's presentation,
you can contact us at the sanctuary.education@NOAA.gov
I wanted to also let everyone know that you'll be receiving a certificate of attendance
for today's session.
And this is generally something that we provide all attendees.
We've even for those if you also have friends or colleagues that plan to watch the archive,
occasionally people will email us saying "hey, I watched the archive to the end.
I would love to get my certificate of attendance." And we do allow for that, as well.
And just to give a little promo for two of our upcoming presentations,
we have Dr. James A. Morris jr. who works for NOAA.
He'll be with us presenting ocean reports,
which is this comprehensive web-based spatial assessment tool.
And it's the first ever that's comprehensive for the United States, UEC.
and so we are not only going to hear from James what this ocean reports tool is,
but we're gonna be soliciting a lot of feedback
from our participants, primarily formal and informal educators,
on how they can envision utilizing this robust online product.
Because we do potentially have funds to make educational tools
using this ocean reports.
So that'll be on October 8th, so just a few weeks.
And we're still looking for presentation for November but
in December we'll be targeting one of our sweet water sanctuaries.
Our Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
and we'll be exploring sinkholes with Mr. Biddanda
and so he'll teach everybody about a decade of exploration of life and Lake Huron's sinkholes
and how these five findings have relevance to the Earth's current
biologic and physiologic diversity.
So look forward to you potentially joining some of these future webinars.
We do have a very short evaluation that follows today's presentation.
So when you close out of GoToWebinar
if you would please take three minutes to answer those questions.
It is extremely helpful for us to get a sense of evaluating our distance learning programs.
And there's an opportunity to provide feedback
on the actual session as well as topics that you would like to see in the future presentation.
So with that, I will be concluding today's webinar.
Take those three minutes and do the evaluation. It'd be greatly appreciated.
And thanks for Richard for a fantastic presentation on the connectivity
genetic connectivity these species in Hawaii.
You're welcome.
This concludes today's webinar. Thanks for joining us.