Why
would you say your work is highly cited?
|
“Evidence for local retention in marine populations is accumulating in a number of different areas.”
|
|
This is a bit hard to specify, because the works on the Special
Topics list range in subject from population biology to behavior to
brain function. But the most highly cited items concern recruitment in
marine systems: given that most marine larvae are tiny pelagic
creatures, just how open or closed are local marine populations? This
question is of major concern to marine ecologists and evolutionary
biologists, and the highly cited papers address the question directly.
What
are the circumstances which led you to your work?
A realization that we need to know the degree to which local
production of larvae affects local recruitment. Most ecological and
evolutionary models for marine systems, as well as most spatially
based management decisions, depend on assumptions regarding this
connection, and it is unknown for virtually all marine organisms.
How
would you describe the significance of this work for your field?
It raised the possibility that local production can affect local
recruitment, despite pelagic larval durations lasting weeks or
months. If marine populations are more closed than it was once
supposed, if there really isn't a large, mixed "larval
pool," we may need to reassess our approach to marine
population dynamics and conservation.
How
much has this research advanced since you first started publishing on
it?
Evidence for local retention in marine populations is
accumulating in a number of different areas. In genetics,
particularly, as the tools have become more sophisticated, evidence
is building showing fine-scale population differences over
surprisingly short distances. The microchemical approach that we use
has been slower to develop, because the techniques are still being
worked out.
Where
do you see this research going 10 years from now?
I'd like to see a series of studies with linked microchemical and
genetic data for a number of open-coast species, all tied to
oceanography. Only then will we be able to generate rules of thumb
that managers could use.
What
lessons would you draw from your work to share with the next
generation of researchers?
Don't be afraid to try new techniques to answer old questions,
and don't be alarmed if the answers turn out to be unexpected ones.
Robert Warner, Ph.D.
Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA, USA
n
this interview, Dr. Robert Warner talks about his highly cited
work in coral reef ecology. According to our Special Topics
analysis, Dr. Warner’s work ranks at #6, with 29 papers
cited a total of 518 times to date. In the 
Web product, Dr. Warner’s work can be found in the field of
Plant & Animal Science. Dr. Warner is a Professor in the
Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology Department at the
University of California, Santa Barbara.
