Meeting Abstract

68.6  Jan. 7  Broadcast spawners that poof: a model of turbulent diffusion from a point source applied to coral spawning in the field LOTTERHOS, K. E.*; LEVITAN, D. R.; Florida State University klotterhos@bio.fsu.edu

Broadcast spawners are organisms that emit both male and female gametes into the water column, and depend on water motion to bring sperm and eggs together. Diffusion models of gamete mixing can give insight into the behavioral adaptations of broadcast spawners and have implications for biological processes such as fertilization success. Some taxa, such as sea urchins, emit their gametes over a period of time in a plume, a process that has been modeled theoretically and tested experimentally in marine systems. These plume models are time independent as a plume will establish a concentration gradient of gametes. Here we present a model of turbulent diffusion from an instantaneous point source, which is time dependent as the sperm rapidly diffuses from a point source. This model may be applied to organisms that emit gametes in bundles or bursts, such as in some corals and fish. Parameterization of the model was accomplished by measuring diffusion coefficients of dye blobs in the field. The model was tested by examining sperm concentration and fertilization as a function of time and distance from a bursting coral gamete bundle in the Caribbean.