Capítulo 12 del libro "Alboran Sea - Ecosystems and Marine Resources". Two main concepts arise when dealing with the topic dynamics-of-population: dispersal
and connectivity. The former describes the mechanism employed to disperse early life
stages of the biological cycle (spores, eggs, larvae for benthic or pelagic species and
also juveniles for pelagic ones) and aims at maximizing the spread and at expanding the
distribution of the species over the maximum geographical range (Cowen and
Sponaugle 2009). Marine propagule dispersal relies basically on the environmental
dynamics, where turbulence, advection and diffusion acting at different scales determine
the connections or separation of different (sub-) populations of both benthic and pelagic
taxa (Dubois et al., 2016). The patterns of linkage or isolation, which determine the very
development and abundance of certain species in certain areas, are summarized under
the concept of connectivity.
