Depth-dependent parental effects create invisible barriers to coral dispersal.

ABSTRACT: Historically, marine populations were considered to be interconnected across large geographic regions due to the lack of apparent physical barriers to dispersal, coupled with a potentially widely dispersive pelagic larval stage. Recent studies, however, are providing increasing evidence of small-scale genetic segregation of populations across habitats and depths, separated in some cases by only a few dozen meters. Here, we performed a series of ex-situ and in-situ experiments using coral larvae of three brooding species from contrasting shallow- and deep-water reef habitats, and show that their settlement success, habitat choices, and subsequent survival are substantially influenced by parental effects in a habitat-dependent manner. Generally, larvae originating from deep-water corals, whi

SUBMITTER: Shlesinger T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7884412 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature