Extreme seascape drives local recruitment and genetic divergence in brooding and spawning corals in remote north-west Australia.

ABSTRACT: Management strategies designed to conserve coral reefs threatened by climate change need to incorporate knowledge of the spatial distribution of inter- and intra-specific genetic diversity. We characterized patterns of genetic diversity and connectivity using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in two reef-building corals to explore the eco-evolutionary processes that sustain populations in north-west Australia. Our sampling focused on the unique reefs of the Kimberley; we collected the broadcast spawning coral Acropora aspera (n = 534) and the brooding coral Isopora brueggemanni (n = 612) across inter-archipelago (tens to hundreds of kilometres), inter-reef (kilometres to tens of kilometres) and within-reef (tens of metres to a few kilometres) scales. Initia

SUBMITTER: Underwood JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7513722 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature