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Contrasting population genetic structures of sympatric, mass-spawning Caribbean corals

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Abstract

Coral reef conservation management policy often focuses on larval retention and recruitment of marine fish with scant data available on important, less motile reef-building species such as corals. To evaluate the concept of population connectivity in corals, we tested whether broadcast spawning reproduction per se confers the same degree of dispersal to two sister species, Montastraea annularis (Anthozoa: Scleractinia; Ellis and Solander 1786) and M. faveolata (Ellis and Solander 1786), both dominant taxa in reefs of the northern Caribbean. Genetic analyses of ten nuclear DNA loci (seven microsatellite and three single-copy RFLP) reveal strikingly different patterns of population genetic subdivision for these closely related, sympatric species, in spite of likely identical dispersal abilities. Strong population genetic structure typified the architecture of M. annularis, whereas M. faveolata populations were principally genetically well mixed. A higher level of clonality was observed in M. annularis potentially because of a susceptibility to physical fragmentation. Clonality did not, however, significantly contribute to population genetic structure or low-level Hardy–Weinberg and linkage disequilibria observed in some populations. The lack of consistent association between reproductive mode and dispersal reinforces the perspective that population connectivity is not so much a function of predictable marine population source and sink relationships as is due to a more complex interface of oceanic currents interacting with and amplifying stochastic fluctuations in larval supply and settlement success. Our results support others promoting an overall ecosystem approach in marine protected area design.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Hagman and E. Weil for providing samples from Mexico and Puerto Rico, respectively; A. Bass, C. Curtis, J. Garey, M. Garvey, K. Hayes, C. Lund, K. Overholtzer, L. Robbins, T. Schwartz and the staff at the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for help in obtaining samples; A. Szmant for generously providing gamete bundles used for the genomic library construction; I Baums, B. Bowen, M. Craig, N. Knowlton, C. Puchulutegui, L. Rocha, A. Szmant, M. Zacks and anonymous reviewers for comments on this and previous drafts. Financial support for this work was provided by the Fred and Helen Tharp Foundation and Florida Sea Grant/Aylesworth Foundation grants to E.G.S. and by Florida Institute of Oceanography and National Science Foundation Grant in Systematics DEB 98-06905 to SAK.

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  1. Emily G. Severance

    Present address: Stanley Division, Johns Hopkins University, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Blalock 1105, Baltimore, MD, 21287-4933, USA

  2. Stephen A. Karl

    Present address: The Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawai’i, Manoa, PO Box 1346, Kaneohe, HI, 96744, USA

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  1. Department of Biology, SCA 110, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33620-5200, USA

    Emily G. Severance & Stephen A. Karl

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Correspondence to Stephen A. Karl.

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Communicated by S. Nishida, Tokyo

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Severance, E.G., Karl, S.A. Contrasting population genetic structures of sympatric, mass-spawning Caribbean corals. Mar Biol 150, 57–68 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0332-2

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