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Genetic Connectivity in Tropical and Temperate Australian Seagrass Species

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Seagrasses of Australia

Abstract

Connectivity among populations influences resilience, genetic diversity , adaptation and speciation, so understanding this process is fundamental for conservation and management . This chapter summarises the main mechanisms of gene flow within and among seagrass meadows , and what we know about the spatial patterns of gene flow around Australia’s coastline. Today a significant body of research on the demographic and genetic connectivity of Australian seagrass meadows has developed. Most studies have focused on the genera Posidonia, Zostera, Heterozostera and Thalassia, in tropical and temperate systems across a range of habitats. These studies have shown overwhelmingly, that sexual reproduction is important for meadow persistence, as in most cases Australian seagrass meadows are genotypically diverse, with moderate to high levels of genotypic diversity. This high diversity could be generated through demographic connectivity, recruitment of individuals sourced from within a meadow, or from dispersal between meadows. Attempts to understand the relative significance of these processes are limited, highlighting a major gap in our understanding. Genetic structure is apparent across a range of spatial scales, from m’s to 100’s to 1000’s km. At local and regional scales, particularly in confined systems such as estuaries and bays, it is not necessarily the dominant oceanographic currents influencing patterns of genetic connectivity, but local eddies, winds and tides. Over larger spatial scales , isolation by distance is consistently significant, with unique genetic clusters spreading over 100s of kilometres. This indicates that regional structure occurs at the limits of long distance dispersal for the species and this is particularly evident where meadows are highly fragmented. The number of genetic studies on Australian seagrasses has increased dramatically recently; however, there are still many opportunities to improve our understanding through focusing on species with different dispersal potentials, more detailed sampling across a range of spatial and temporal scales and combining ecological and modelling approaches.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note Thomson et al. (2015) define these as viviparous propagules, but this term is incorrect. Viviparous propagules are sexually produced propagules that develop on the mother plant. We use the term asexually or clonally derived propagules in this case.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research and School of Science, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, WA, Australia

    Kathryn McMahon & Udhi E. Hernawan

  2. School of Biological Sciences and Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, Australia

    Elizabeth A. Sinclair

  3. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Craig D. H. Sherman

  4. School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Kor-Jent van Dijk

  5. Research Centre for Oceanography (P2O), Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Ancol Timur, Jakarta, 14430, Indonesia

    Udhi E. Hernawan

  6. School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia

    Jennifer Verduin

  7. School of Biological Sciences, Department of Environment Water and Natural Resources, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Michelle Waycott

Authors
  1. Kathryn McMahon
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  2. Elizabeth A. Sinclair
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  3. Craig D. H. Sherman
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  4. Kor-Jent van Dijk
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  5. Udhi E. Hernawan
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  6. Jennifer Verduin
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  7. Michelle Waycott
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathryn McMahon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Anthony W. D. Larkum

  2. School of Biological Sciences and the Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Autralia, Australia

    Gary A. Kendrick

  3. Climate Change Cluster, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Peter J. Ralph

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McMahon, K. et al. (2018). Genetic Connectivity in Tropical and Temperate Australian Seagrass Species. In: Larkum, A., Kendrick, G., Ralph, P. (eds) Seagrasses of Australia. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71354-0_6

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