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Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island

Mesophotic habitats could be sheltered from natural and anthropogenic disturbances and act as reproductive refuges, providing propagules to replenish shallower populations. Molecular markers can be used as proxies evaluating the connectivity and inferring population structure and larval dispersal. T...

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Autores principales: de Palmas, Stéphane, Soto, Derek, Ho, Ming-Jay, Denis, Vianney, Chen, Chaolun Allen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8504772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34634065
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258181
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author de Palmas, Stéphane
Soto, Derek
Ho, Ming-Jay
Denis, Vianney
Chen, Chaolun Allen
author_facet de Palmas, Stéphane
Soto, Derek
Ho, Ming-Jay
Denis, Vianney
Chen, Chaolun Allen
author_sort de Palmas, Stéphane
collection PubMed
description Mesophotic habitats could be sheltered from natural and anthropogenic disturbances and act as reproductive refuges, providing propagules to replenish shallower populations. Molecular markers can be used as proxies evaluating the connectivity and inferring population structure and larval dispersal. This study characterizes population structure as well as horizontal and vertical genetic connectivity of the broadcasting coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, a small oceanic island off the eastern coast of Taiwan. We genotyped 75 P. verrucosa specimens from three sites (Gongguan, Dabaisha, and Guiwan) at three depth ranges (Shallow: 7–15 m, Mid-depth: 23–30 m, and Deep: 38–45 m), spanning shallow to upper mesophotic coral reefs, with eight microsatellite markers. F-statistics showed a moderate differentiation (F(ST) = 0.106, p<0.05) between two adjacent locations (Dabaisha 23–30 and Dabaisha 38–45 m), but no differentiation elsewhere, suggesting high levels of connectivity among sites and depths. STRUCTURE analysis showed no genetic clustering among sites or depths, indicating that all Pocillopora individuals could be drawn from a single panmictic population. Simulations of recent migration assigned 30 individuals (40%) to a different location from where they were collected. Among them, 1/3 were assigned to deeper locations, 1/3 to shallower populations and 1/3 were assigned to the right depth but a different site. These results suggest high levels of vertical and horizontal connectivity, which could enhance the recovery of P. verrucosa following disturbances around Ludao, a feature that agrees with demographic studies portraying this species as an opportunistic scleractinian.
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spelling pubmed-85047722021-10-12 Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island de Palmas, Stéphane Soto, Derek Ho, Ming-Jay Denis, Vianney Chen, Chaolun Allen PLoS One Research Article Mesophotic habitats could be sheltered from natural and anthropogenic disturbances and act as reproductive refuges, providing propagules to replenish shallower populations. Molecular markers can be used as proxies evaluating the connectivity and inferring population structure and larval dispersal. This study characterizes population structure as well as horizontal and vertical genetic connectivity of the broadcasting coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, a small oceanic island off the eastern coast of Taiwan. We genotyped 75 P. verrucosa specimens from three sites (Gongguan, Dabaisha, and Guiwan) at three depth ranges (Shallow: 7–15 m, Mid-depth: 23–30 m, and Deep: 38–45 m), spanning shallow to upper mesophotic coral reefs, with eight microsatellite markers. F-statistics showed a moderate differentiation (F(ST) = 0.106, p<0.05) between two adjacent locations (Dabaisha 23–30 and Dabaisha 38–45 m), but no differentiation elsewhere, suggesting high levels of connectivity among sites and depths. STRUCTURE analysis showed no genetic clustering among sites or depths, indicating that all Pocillopora individuals could be drawn from a single panmictic population. Simulations of recent migration assigned 30 individuals (40%) to a different location from where they were collected. Among them, 1/3 were assigned to deeper locations, 1/3 to shallower populations and 1/3 were assigned to the right depth but a different site. These results suggest high levels of vertical and horizontal connectivity, which could enhance the recovery of P. verrucosa following disturbances around Ludao, a feature that agrees with demographic studies portraying this species as an opportunistic scleractinian. Public Library of Science 2021-10-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8504772/ /pubmed/34634065 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258181 Text en © 2021 de Palmas et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
de Palmas, Stéphane
Soto, Derek
Ho, Ming-Jay
Denis, Vianney
Chen, Chaolun Allen
Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island
title Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island
title_full Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island
title_fullStr Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island
title_full_unstemmed Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island
title_short Strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral Pocillopora verrucosa from Ludao, Taiwan, a small oceanic island
title_sort strong horizontal and vertical connectivity in the coral pocillopora verrucosa from ludao, taiwan, a small oceanic island
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8504772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34634065
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258181
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