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Colonization of the Hawaiian Archipelago via Johnston Atoll: a characterization of oceanographic transport corridors for pelagic larvae using computer simulation

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Abstract

Larval transport between Johnston Atoll and the Hawaiian Archipelago was examined using computer simulation and high-resolution ocean current data. The effects of pelagic larval duration and spawning seasonality on long-distance transport and local retention were examined using a Lagrangian, individual-based approach. Retention around Johnston Atoll appeared to be low, and there appeared to be seasonal effects on both retention and dispersal. Potential larval transport corridors between Johnston Atoll and the Hawaiian Archipelago were charted. One corridor connects Johnston Atoll with the middle portion of the Hawaiian Archipelago in the vicinity of French Frigate Shoals. Another corridor connects Johnston Atoll with the lower inhabited islands in the vicinity of Kauai. Transport appears to be related to the subtropical countercurrent and the Hawaiian Lee countercurrent, both located to the west of the archipelago and flowing to the east. A new analytical tool, termed CONREC–IRC is presented for the quantification of spatial patterns.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Jeffrey Polovina, Evan Howell, David Booth, and Will Figueira for their constructive comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. NLOM data was acquired with the capable assistance of Dr. James Potemra of the International Pacific Research Center, SOEST, University of Hawaii.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia

    Donald R. Kobayashi

  2. Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, 2570 Dole Street, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Donald R. Kobayashi

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  1. Donald R. Kobayashi
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Correspondence to Donald R. Kobayashi.

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Communicated by Ecology Editor P.J. Mumby

Appendix

Appendix

CONREC–IRC (IRC refers to “Iterative Region of Containment”) is an iterative program to objectively enclose a scatter of cartesian data points at a user-defined level of containment using a standard contouring algorithm to define the polygon. It was developed from CONREC, an open-source contouring subroutine originally written in FORTRAN-77 (Bourke 1987). CONREC has been ported to many languages (see http://www.astronomy.swin.edu.au/∼pbourke/projection/conrec/), including the Visual Basic version (by James Craig), which was the precursor to CONREC–IRC. CONREC–IRC is written in QuickBasic 4.5 and takes advantage of the POINT command, which can query an individual pixel on the graphical output screen. This functionality was instrumental to CONREC–IRC by enabling tabulation of raw data points inside or outside of the contoured polygon. While mathematical algorithms exist to determine whether a point is within a polygon or not, the simplest method of plotting points, plotting the enclosing polygon, filling the enclosing polygon with color, then querying each data point’s color was the most straightforward technique. The basic step-by-step methodology of CONREC–IRC is as follows:

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Flowchart

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Because only a single value is being optimized, a simple, direct search algorithm (Hooke and Jeeves 1961) was used to converge on the contouring level that would encompass the specified amount of data points. Proportional adjustments to the contour value were based on residuals from the percentage of data points encompassed. Testing with simulated data indicated that CONREC–IRC was able to quickly find the contouring solution within 10–15 iterations and was not sensitive to starting values. CONREC–IRC is suited for spatial data with a single center of mass with density tapers in all directions. More complex spatial patterns would yield multiple or nested contours and are not amenable to the CONREC–IRC approach since definition of a single mass is problematic. The source code for CONREC–IRC is available on request.

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CONREC–IRC example using Johnston Atoll retained larvae

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Kobayashi, D.R. Colonization of the Hawaiian Archipelago via Johnston Atoll: a characterization of oceanographic transport corridors for pelagic larvae using computer simulation. Coral Reefs 25, 407–417 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-006-0118-5

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