Sources of Larvae to Pulley Ridge
Larval Sources
Image courtesy of Claire Paris and Ana Vaz. Download larger version (jpg, 477 KB).

Figure 2. Sources of Larvae to Pulley Ridge: Inter-annual variability of larval sources are simulated by backward particle tracking during 40 days from a single release site located at 60 meters in the Pulley Ridge area (magenta circle). An ensemble of probabilistic simulations are achieved by daily release of particle for five years, from January 2004 to December 2008. The highest larval contribution (in yellow) to Pulley Ridge comes from the western Florida shelf and the Dry Tortugas; both areas represent significant sources of larvae to the mesophotic coral reef ecosystem of Pulley Ridge over the years. Other less frequent upstream larval sources (in green) show some degree of connectivity with the Yucatan peninsula. The gray lines along the coastline indicate the location of the 30-meter, 60-meter, 300-meter, 500-meter, and 1000-meter isobath.

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