Why It's Important: Larval dispersal and settlement is a critical phase in the life cycle of many marine species, including corals, significantly impacting their survival, distribution, and population dynamics. Understanding these early life stage movements is essential for conserving marine biodiversity and managing seafood stocks. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, over 8% of the 17903 marine species assessed are at risk of extinction. Most importantly, warm-water coral reefs are extremely vulnerable to warming. They are estimated to support a quarter to one third of marine biodiversity, including over 25% of marine fish species, and provide nearly US$9.8 trillion worth of ecosystem services each year. An estimated 50% of global live coral cover has been lost over the last 50 years, primarily due to ocean warming. Knowledge of larval migration can play a pivotal role in the conservation of these species.
Our Approach: Our project aims to achieve the following concrete goals. (1) Simulate a single larva using a generative AI agent. The agent can perceive environmental information and take actions similar to those of larvae. (2) Simulate a group of larvae with a network of communicative agents. The agents are able to communicate like larvae and make collective decisions. (3) Apply our framework to three specific cases to investigate the larval dispersal trajectory and settlement region to identify nursery habitats for Red Snapper and Vermilion Snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, and for Acropora corals, found in the Florida Keys, Bahamas, Caribbean and the western portion of the Gulf of Mexico. This approach offers, for the first time, the possibility to simulate the emergence of collective intelligence for larvae groups.