Habitat Specialisation Impacts Clownfish Demographic Resilience to Pleistocene Sea-Level Fluctuations.

ABSTRACT: Habitat fragmentation and loss are key threats to biodiversity, yet their impacts on marine species remain poorly understood. Clownfishes, which rely on sea anemones for shelter and reproduction, provide an interesting model to explore how ecological specialisation mediates species responses to habitat perturbations. We used whole-genome data from 382 individuals across 10 species with varying host specialisations to reconstruct demographic histories and infer spatial genetic structure to assess the impact of Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations. Generalist species, associated with multiple hosts, maintained stable effective population sizes ( Ne ) and population connectivity during habitat fragmentation, reflecting resilience to environmental instability. In contrast, specialists experience

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Jimenez A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12617074 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature