{
  "abstract": "Organism movement is a key process in the transfer of individuals, genes, functional traits, matter, and energy among habitat patches, at sea and across the land-sea interface. The resulting fluxes, collectively termed marine functional connectivity (MFC), underpin planetary health and an array of ecosystem services. The ecological and economic impacts of rapid environmental change, including climate change, overexploitation, habitat loss and fragmentation, and the global transport of nonindigenous species make accurate estimation and prediction of MFC patterns paramount. However, estimating MFC is challenging given the relative inaccessibility of the oceans and the small size of many of the organisms and life stages with the highest dispersal potential. Here, we provide a methodological roadmap to help researchers and stakeholders understand, use, and integrate different tools to estimate organism movement and connectivity, focusing on (1) tagging and telemetry, (2) analysis of chemical markers in body tissues and structures, (3) genetics, and (4) numerical modeling. We describe method strengths and weaknesses, and the spatiotemporal resolution and scale of resulting connectivity estimates. Ancillary and emerging methods to estimate MFC are also reviewed. We then present case studies that have successfully applied or integrated different methods, particularly to support (1) marine protected area design, (2) global change predictions, focusing on climate change and bioinvasions, and (3) fisheries management. Finally, we highlight methodological innovations and concepts that promise to transform MFC research in the future.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "School of Life Sciences, University of Essex Essex UK",
    "Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences University of Lisbon Lisbon Portugal",
    "Ifremer, Station de Sète Sète Cedex France",
    "Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM‐CSIC) Barcelona Catalan Country Spain",
    "Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu Tallinn Estonia",
    "School of Biology, Faculty of Biological Sciences University of Leeds Leeds UK",
    "School of the Environment, University of Queensland Brisbane Queensland Australia",
    "Centro de Investigación Mariña, Future Oceans Lab Universidade de Vigo Vigo Spain",
    "Marine and Freshwater Research Centre, Atlantic Technological University (ATU), ATU Galway City Galway Ireland",
    "ICATMAR Barcelona Spain",
    "Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science Rhodes University Makhanda Eastern Cape South Africa",
    "Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Science University of Bologna Ravenna Italy",
    "Centre for Biological Diversity School of Biology, University of St Andrews St Andrews UK",
    "School of Biological Sciences, Adelaide University Adelaide South Australia Australia",
    "Instituto Español de Oceanografía (CSIC), Centro Oceanografico de Santander Santander Spain",
    "CNRS‐Sorbonne Université, Laboratoire d'Ecogéochimie des Environnements Benthiques LECOB Banyuls‐sur‐Mer France",
    "National Institute of Oceanography, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Haifa Israel",
    "Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries Rostock Germany",
    "Fisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems Branch, Agri‐Food and Biosciences Institute Belfast UK",
    "Royal Belgium Institute of Natural Sciences Brussels Belgium",
    "Department of Fisheries Technology Engineering Karadeniz Technical University Trabzon Turkey",
    "Department of Ecology and Hydrology and Regional Campus of International Excellence “Mare Nostrum” University of Murcia Murcia Spain",
    "Australian Institute of Marine Science Cape Cleveland Queensland Australia",
    "University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Cambridge Maryland USA",
    "Department of Fisheries Resources National Marine Fisheries Research Institute Gdynia Poland",
    "Ocean and Earth Science University of Southampton Southampton UK",
    "Department of Life Sciences Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi Corpus Christi Texas USA",
    "MARBEC, University of Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer Montpellier France"
  ],
  "article_type": "review",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 32,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Anna M. Sturrock",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9423-9845"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Susanne E. Tanner",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2225-7002"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Sophie Arnaud‐Haond",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5814-8452"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Jacopo Aguzzi",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1484-8219"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Francisco R. Barboza",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9100-2962"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Maria Beger",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1363-3571"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "Andreu Blanco",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4162-6598"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8
      ],
      "name": "Deirdre Brophy",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4111-762X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Marta Carretón",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9490-1453"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        10
      ],
      "name": "A-R Childs",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4717-2646"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        11
      ],
      "name": "Federica Costantini",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8813-1923"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        12
      ],
      "name": "Oscar E. Gaggiotti",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1827-1493"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        13
      ],
      "name": "Bronwyn May Gillanders",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7680-2240"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        14
      ],
      "name": "José Manuel González‐Irusta",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3948-604X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        15
      ],
      "name": "Katell Guizien",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9884-7506"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        16
      ],
      "name": "Tamar Guy‐Haim",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6962-0262"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        17
      ],
      "name": "Stefanie Haase",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9523-6547"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        18
      ],
      "name": "Ewan Hunter",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0140-2928"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Jonne Kotta",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4970-6755"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        19
      ],
      "name": "Geneviève Lacroix",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3227-0000"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        20
      ],
      "name": "Rafet Çağrı Öztürk",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1785-4056"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        21
      ],
      "name": "Ángel Pérez‐Ruzafa",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4769-8912"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        13
      ],
      "name": "Patrick Reis‐Santos",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9843-9465"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        22,
        6
      ],
      "name": "Cynthia Riginos",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5485-4197"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        16
      ],
      "name": "Gil Rilov",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1334-4887"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        16
      ],
      "name": "Baruch Rinkevich",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2401-0145"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Guiomar Rotllant",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6692-9678"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        23
      ],
      "name": "David H. Secor",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6007-4827"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        24
      ],
      "name": "Szymon Smoliński",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2715-984X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        25
      ],
      "name": "Clive N. Trueman",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4995-736X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        26
      ],
      "name": "Benjamin D. Walther",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2902-4001"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        27
      ],
      "name": "Audrey M. Darnaude",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7129-3902"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/229h615086exm.bib",
  "cited_by": 5,
  "doi": "10.1002/eap.70273",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "229h615086exm",
  "issns": [
    "1051-0761",
    "1939-5582"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70273",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "openalex",
      "2303|Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7165798934",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13291831",
  "pmid": "42338405",
  "published": "2026-06-01",
  "publisher": "Wiley",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/229h615086exm.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-01T13:20:23Z",
      "native_id": "W7165798934",
      "source": "openalex",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.70273"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2303|Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Methods to estimate marine functional connectivity: A primer",
  "title_text": "Methods to estimate marine functional connectivity: A primer",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-06T13:20:43Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/229h615086exm",
  "venue": "Ecological Applications",
  "versions": []
}