We study animals living in environments like hydrothermal vents that can be paved over by an eruption and coral reefs that can be damaged by trawling and blast fishing. How fast will this damaged area recover? Will the same species come back? The answer to these questions depend on the distance to the nearest healthy populations and the ability of those individuals or their offspring to make it to the damaged site - dispersal!
Check out some of our work on the role of larvae in disturbance published in
the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.