文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Potential connectivity of marginal coral reefs in the northern South China Sea

作者：Guan, Yi[1,2,3];Zhang, Tianyu[1,2,3]

机构：[1]Guangdong Ocean Univ, Coll Ocean & Meteorol, Lab Coastal Ocean Variat & Disaster Predict, Zhanjiang, Guangdong, Peoples R China;[2]Guangdong Ocean Univ, Dept Edu Guangdong Prov, Key Lab Climate Resources & Environm Continental S, Zhanjiang, Peoples R China;[3]Southern Marine Sci & Engn Guangdong Lab Zhuhai, Zhuhai, Peoples R China

年份：2026

卷号：13

外文期刊名：FRONTIERS IN MARINE SCIENCE

收录：SCI-EXPANDED(收录号：WOS:001808706900001)、、WOS

基金：The author(s) declared that financial support was received for this work and/or its publication. This research was supported by Innovative Programs for Regular Higher Education Institutions in Guangdong Province (2024KTSCX200), Start-up Fund for PhD Researchers (060302032104), The Innovative Team Plan for Department of Education of Guangdong Province (2023KCXTD015), First-class Discipline Plan of Guangdong Province (PX-1292024003), Independent Project of the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai) (SML2024SP023), Guangdong Province Ordinary Universities Characteristic Innovation Project (2025KTSCX046), the National Foreign Experts Program (No. S20240134).

语种：英文

外文关键词：coral reef; larval dispersal; marginal reefs; potential connectivity; South China Sea

外文摘要：Marginal coral reefs in the northern South China Sea (NSCS) are increasingly affected by thermal stress and local disturbances, yet their potential larval connectivity remains poorly quantified. Here, we assessed potential larval exchange among 23 reef patches in the NSCS using a Lagrangian particle-tracking model driven by regional ocean circulation data from 2000 to 2025. Connectivity was evaluated under pelagic larval duration (PLD) scenarios of 5, 30, and 120 days. Increasing PLD from 5 to 120 d increased the number of potential inter-patch links from 13 to 29, but mean positive off-diagonal connectivity declined by approximately 62%, indicating that many additional long-PLD pathways were weak. Episodic networks further showed that such low-frequency pathways could extend potential exchange among reef sectors, including the Beibu Gulf-western Hainan sector, the Xisha Islands, and the Vietnam coastal reefs. At the patch level, several Beibu Gulf and Hainan reefs showed self-retentive tendencies, whereas patches in the Xisha Islands and Vietnam coastal sector showed more diverse functional roles. These findings suggest that marginal reefs in the NSCS are linked by a spatially uneven and temporally intermittent network of potential larval exchange, providing testable hypotheses for connectivity-informed conservation assessment that should be evaluated alongside habitat condition, recruitment, and genetic evidence.