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Sea snakes rarely venture far from home

The extent to which populations are connected by dispersal influences all aspects of their biology and informs the spatial scale of optimal conservation strategies. Obtaining direct estimates of dispersal is challenging, particularly in marine systems, with studies typically relying on indirect appr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lukoschek, Vimoksalehi, Shine, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3402188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22833788
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.256
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author Lukoschek, Vimoksalehi
Shine, Richard
author_facet Lukoschek, Vimoksalehi
Shine, Richard
author_sort Lukoschek, Vimoksalehi
collection PubMed
description The extent to which populations are connected by dispersal influences all aspects of their biology and informs the spatial scale of optimal conservation strategies. Obtaining direct estimates of dispersal is challenging, particularly in marine systems, with studies typically relying on indirect approaches to evaluate connectivity. To overcome this challenge, we combine information from an eight-year mark-recapture study with high-resolution genetic data to demonstrate extremely low dispersal and restricted gene flow at small spatial scales for a large, potentially mobile marine vertebrate, the turtleheaded sea snake (Emydocephalus annulatus). Our mark-recapture study indicated that adjacent bays in New Caledonia (<1.15 km apart) contain virtually separate sea snake populations. Sea snakes could easily swim between bays but rarely do so. Of 817 recaptures of marked snakes, only two snakes had moved between bays. We genotyped 136 snakes for 11 polymorphic microsatellite loci and found statistically significant genetic divergence between the two bays (F(ST)= 0.008, P < 0.01). Bayesian clustering analyses detected low mixed ancestry within bays and genetic relatedness coefficients were higher, on average, within than between bays. Our results indicate that turtleheaded sea snakes rarely venture far from home, which has strong implications for their ecology, evolution, and conservation.
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spelling pubmed-34021882012-07-25 Sea snakes rarely venture far from home Lukoschek, Vimoksalehi Shine, Richard Ecol Evol Original Research The extent to which populations are connected by dispersal influences all aspects of their biology and informs the spatial scale of optimal conservation strategies. Obtaining direct estimates of dispersal is challenging, particularly in marine systems, with studies typically relying on indirect approaches to evaluate connectivity. To overcome this challenge, we combine information from an eight-year mark-recapture study with high-resolution genetic data to demonstrate extremely low dispersal and restricted gene flow at small spatial scales for a large, potentially mobile marine vertebrate, the turtleheaded sea snake (Emydocephalus annulatus). Our mark-recapture study indicated that adjacent bays in New Caledonia (<1.15 km apart) contain virtually separate sea snake populations. Sea snakes could easily swim between bays but rarely do so. Of 817 recaptures of marked snakes, only two snakes had moved between bays. We genotyped 136 snakes for 11 polymorphic microsatellite loci and found statistically significant genetic divergence between the two bays (F(ST)= 0.008, P < 0.01). Bayesian clustering analyses detected low mixed ancestry within bays and genetic relatedness coefficients were higher, on average, within than between bays. Our results indicate that turtleheaded sea snakes rarely venture far from home, which has strong implications for their ecology, evolution, and conservation. Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012-06 /pmc/articles/PMC3402188/ /pubmed/22833788 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.256 Text en © 2012 The Authors. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
spellingShingle Original Research
Lukoschek, Vimoksalehi
Shine, Richard
Sea snakes rarely venture far from home
title Sea snakes rarely venture far from home
title_full Sea snakes rarely venture far from home
title_fullStr Sea snakes rarely venture far from home
title_full_unstemmed Sea snakes rarely venture far from home
title_short Sea snakes rarely venture far from home
title_sort sea snakes rarely venture far from home
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3402188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22833788
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.256
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