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Asexual reproduction does not produce clonal populations of the brooding coral Pocillopora damicornis on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

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Abstract

We have investigated the relationship between genotypic diversity, the mode of production of brooded larvae and disturbance in a range of reef habitats, in order to resolve the disparity between the reproductive mode and population structure reported for the brooding coral Pocillopora damicornis. Within 14 sites across six habitats, the ratio of the observed (G o) to the expected (G e) genotypic diversity ranged from 69 to 100% of that expected for random mating. At three other sites in two habitats the G o /G e ranged from 35 to 53%. Two of these sites were recently bleached, suggesting that asexual recruitment may be favoured after disturbance. Nevertheless, our data suggest that brooded larvae, from each of five habitats surveyed, were asexually produced. While clonal recruitment may be important in disturbed habitats, the lack of clonality detected, both in this and earlier surveys of 40 other sites, implies that a disturbance is normally insufficient to explain this species’ continued investment in clonal reproduction.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mike Johnson and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. M. Martin, J. Dunn and C. Mundy helped with field and laboratory work. K. and P. Beinssen assisted at the University of Sydney’s One Tree Island research station. This work was supported, in part, by two student grants to C.D.H. Sherman by the Great Barrier Reef Marines Park Authority and by an ARC Discovery Grant to D.J. Ayre and K.J. Miller. This is publication #258 from the Ecology and Genetics Group at the University of Wollongong.

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  1. Institute for Conservation Biology and School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    C.D.H. Sherman, D.J. Ayre & K.J. Miller

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  1. C.D.H. Sherman
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  2. D.J. Ayre
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  3. K.J. Miller
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Correspondence to C.D.H. Sherman.

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Communicated by Biological Editor H.R. Lasker

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Sherman, C., Ayre, D. & Miller, K. Asexual reproduction does not produce clonal populations of the brooding coral Pocillopora damicornis on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Coral Reefs 25, 7–18 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-005-0053-x

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