The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages
Conservation of ecological communities requires deepening our understanding of genetic diversity patterns and drivers at community-wide scales. Here, we use seascape genetic analysis of a diversity metric, allelic richness (AR), for 47 reef species sampled across 13 Hawaiian Islands to empirically d...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
The Royal Society Publishing
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51429 |
| _version_ | 1848758695664549888 |
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| author | Selkoe, K. Gaggiotti, O. Treml, E. Wren, J. Donovan, M. Hawai‘i Reef Connectivity Consortium Di Battista, Joseph Toonen, R. |
| author_facet | Selkoe, K. Gaggiotti, O. Treml, E. Wren, J. Donovan, M. Hawai‘i Reef Connectivity Consortium Di Battista, Joseph Toonen, R. |
| author_sort | Selkoe, K. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Conservation of ecological communities requires deepening our understanding of genetic diversity patterns and drivers at community-wide scales. Here, we use seascape genetic analysis of a diversity metric, allelic richness (AR), for 47 reef species sampled across 13 Hawaiian Islands to empirically demonstrate that large reefs high in coral cover harbour the greatest genetic diversity on average. We found that a species’s life history (e.g. depth range and herbivory) mediates response of genetic diversity to seascape drivers in logical ways. Furthermore, a metric of combined multi-species AR showed strong coupling to species richness and habitat area, quality and stability that few species showed individually. We hypothesize that macro-ecological forces and species interactions, by mediating species turnover and occupancy (and thus a site’s mean effective population size), influence the aggregate genetic diversity of a site, potentially allowing it to behave as an apparent emergent trait that is shaped by the dominant seascape drivers. The results highlight inherent feedbacks between ecology and genetics, raise concern that genetic resilience of entire reef communities is compromised by factors that reduce coral cover or available habitat, including thermal stress, and provide a foundation for new strategies for monitoring and preserving biodiversity of entire reef ecosystems. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:48:05Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-51429 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:48:05Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | The Royal Society Publishing |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-514292021-01-08T07:54:28Z The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages Selkoe, K. Gaggiotti, O. Treml, E. Wren, J. Donovan, M. Hawai‘i Reef Connectivity Consortium Di Battista, Joseph Toonen, R. Conservation of ecological communities requires deepening our understanding of genetic diversity patterns and drivers at community-wide scales. Here, we use seascape genetic analysis of a diversity metric, allelic richness (AR), for 47 reef species sampled across 13 Hawaiian Islands to empirically demonstrate that large reefs high in coral cover harbour the greatest genetic diversity on average. We found that a species’s life history (e.g. depth range and herbivory) mediates response of genetic diversity to seascape drivers in logical ways. Furthermore, a metric of combined multi-species AR showed strong coupling to species richness and habitat area, quality and stability that few species showed individually. We hypothesize that macro-ecological forces and species interactions, by mediating species turnover and occupancy (and thus a site’s mean effective population size), influence the aggregate genetic diversity of a site, potentially allowing it to behave as an apparent emergent trait that is shaped by the dominant seascape drivers. The results highlight inherent feedbacks between ecology and genetics, raise concern that genetic resilience of entire reef communities is compromised by factors that reduce coral cover or available habitat, including thermal stress, and provide a foundation for new strategies for monitoring and preserving biodiversity of entire reef ecosystems. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51429 10.1098/rspb.2016.0354 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Royal Society Publishing fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Selkoe, K. Gaggiotti, O. Treml, E. Wren, J. Donovan, M. Hawai‘i Reef Connectivity Consortium Di Battista, Joseph Toonen, R. The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages |
| title | The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages |
| title_full | The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages |
| title_fullStr | The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages |
| title_full_unstemmed | The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages |
| title_short | The DNA of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages |
| title_sort | dna of coral reef biodiversity: predicting and protecting genetic diversity of reef assemblages |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51429 |