Hybridisation on coral reefs and the conservation of evolutionary novelty
By Z. Richards, J. Hobbs. 2015
83 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Hybridisation was traditionally considered rare on coral reefs. However, a rapid increase in hybrid studies over the last 20 years has revealed that hybridisation on coral reefs is common and widespread. In this review, we summarise the growing body of evidence arising from studies on stony corals and reef fishes to verify the occurrence of hybridisation, and we examine the influence hybridisation has had on the enormous level of biodiversity present on coral reefs. We discuss the challenges of distinguishing hybridisation from alternative hypotheses (e.g. incomplete lineage sorting). This review also explores the evolutionary consequences of hybridisation, which range from increasing genetic diversity and the production of novel lineages that may outperform the parent species, to reverse speciation and extinction by genetic swamping. Instances of hybridisation can be natural or occur as a result of human impacts (e.g. habitat degradation) and distinguishing between these two very different causal mechanisms is important for management. Currently, the legislative status of hybrids is unclear and hybrids are rarely protected in conservation programs. Failing to adequately manage hybridisation and hybrid lineages may lead to potential losses of evolutionary novelty, declines in phylogenetic diversity or species extinctions. To conserve existing coral reef biodiversity, and the processes that generate biodiversity, conservation policies must be re-defined and instances of hybridisation must be assessed and managed on a case-by-case basis
Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b0f7334878cb20902ef6b3f34d876db79dd72680
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Ecology
In Nature and Landscape Conservation
Citations in the corpus
- Hybridization as a conservation management tool (2019, background): “Ignoring hybrids in conservation represents a mismatch between policy, science, and real-world conservation needs (Richards & Hobbs 2015), and a major revision of conservation legislation is overdue.”