Effects of geography and life history traits on genetic differentiation in benthic marine fishes

By Cynthia Riginos, Kristina E. Douglas, Young K. Jin, Danielle F. Shanahan, Eric A. Treml. 2011

196 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Dispersal of planktonic larvae can create connections between geographically separated adult populations of benthic marine animals. How geographic context and life history traits affect these connections is largely unresolved. We use data from genetic studies (species level FST) of benthic teleost fishes combined with linear models to evaluate the importance of transitions between biogeographic regions, geographic distance, egg type (benthic or pelagic eggs), pelagic larval duration (PLD), and type of genetic marker as factors affecting differentiation within species. We find that transitions between biogeographic regions and egg type are significant and consistent contributors to population genetic structure, whereas PLD does not significantly explain population structure. Total study distance frequently contributes to significant interaction terms, particularly in association with genetic markers, whereby FST increases with study distance for studies employing mtDNA sequences, but allozyme and microsatellite studies show no increase in FST with study distance. These results highlight the importance of spatial context (biogeography and geographic distance) in affecting genetic differentiation and imply that there are inherent differences in dispersal ability associated with egg type. We also find that the geographic distance over which the maximum pairwise FST between populations occurs (relative to total study distance) is highly variable and can be observed at any scale. This result is consistent with stochastic processes inflating genetic differentiation and/or insufficient consideration of geographic and biological factors relevant to connectivity.

Subfields: Ecology, Genetics, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6a45a4216be926021b4dbd0fe470f3c7738615c4

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Citations in the corpus

Linking basin‐scale connectivity, oceanography and population dynamics for the conservation and management of marine ecosystems (2016, background): “…the interplay between the complex life history traits of marine246 organisms, their distribution ranges and their realized dispersal [e.g. Riginos et al. 2011; Mora et al. 2012],247 the respective roles of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that determine population connectivities remain…”
The application of genetics to marine management and conservation: Examples from the Indo-Pacific (2014, background): “…of differentiation (Hart and Marko 2010, Marko and Hart 2011), the influence of pelagic larval duration (PLD) on dispersal ability (Weersing and Toonen 2009, Selkoe and Toonen 2011, Riginos et al. 2011, Faurby and Barber 2012) and realized dispersal on population genetic structure and gene flow.”
Seascape Genetics: Populations, Individuals, and Genes Marooned and Adrift (2013, background): “…genetic data sets (invertebrate and fishes) have found PLD to be a weak or poor predictor of genetic differentiation (Weersing & Toonen 2009; Riginos et al. 2011; Selkoe & Toonen 2011), these post-hoc analyses ignore the effects of geographic location and evolutionary differences among…”
A review of contemporary patterns of endemism for shallow water reef fauna in the Red Sea (2016, background): “PLDs as a basis for estimating the dispersal potential in coral reef fishes is also the subject of ongoing debate (Riginos et al., 2011; Selkoe & Toonen, 2011).”