Genetic impacts of physical disturbance processes in coastal marine ecosystems

Abstract

Aim Coastal habitats are among the most dynamic environments on earth and are highly vulnerable to large‐scale physical disturbance. Genetic studies of nearshore marine species are revealing long‐lasting signatures of major coastal disturbance events. We synthesize emerging data to highlight how physical perturbations can impact the phylogeographic patterns of coastal populations. Taxon Coastal marine and estuarine taxa. Location Coastal regions around the globe. Methods We synthesize coastal genetic and genomic literature, focussing particularly on the phylogeographic consequences of natural disturbance events including uplift, tsunami, hurricanes, glaciations and sea‐level fluctuations. We focus on studies with clear physical analytical frameworks constrained by abiotic data. Results Tectonic and atmospheric disruptions can be considered shot‐term events with major impacts on populations adjacent to the centre of disturbance, typically resulting in the evolution of shallow phylogeographic patterns. Long‐lived climate‐driven disturbances such as glaciations, however, operate over vast geographic scales and often drive deep evolutionary patterns in affected populations. We show that studies using genome‐wide data could better identify fine‐scale signatures of both past and contemporary habitat perturbations. Conclusions Recent data reveal the interplay between physical upheaval and coastal phylogeography, indicating that disturbance can affect diversity, connectivity and demography of coastal populations. The interplay between long‐lived large‐scale disturbance and species‐specific biotic traits has shaped deep phylogeographic patterns of coastal taxa. Additionally, it could be argued that, at least for some regions, short‐term disturbance is the ‘rule’ rather than the ‘exception’, and thus, represents a key driver of coastal genetic patterns in disturbance prone coastal regions. Geo‐genomic approaches that combine genome‐wide data with explicit habitat models or disturbance history information have been particularly successful in explaining the drivers of coastal evolutionary change. We argue that future integration of genomic and physical data will be crucial for tracing evolutionary trends in fast‐changing marine environments.

Severe hurricanes increase recruitment and gene flow in the clonal sponge Aplysina cauliformis

“…Major tropical hurricanes, such as Irma and Maria, are capable of modifying coastal and nearshore physical landscapes, affecting the genetic diversity and population structure of coastal marine species (Apodaca et al., 2013; Banks et al., 2013; Pagán et al., 2020; Parvizi et al., 2022). Some of these changes arise from altering habitat suitability and availability of substrate for larval settlement (e.g.…”

Population genomic analysis reveals genetic structure and thermal-tolerant genotypes in remnant Tasmanian giant kelp populations

“…Our findings differ from prior genetic analysis using only conservative mitochondrial and plastid molecular markers that revealed negligible genetic diversity among the population in Tasmania (Macaya & Zuccarello, 2010, Durrant et al ., 2015). A genome-wide approach is more powerful in revealing fine-scale intraspecific structures (Parvizi et al ., 2022). Distinct genetic structuring using nuclear microsatellite loci (Alberto et al ., 2009) has, however, been observed in population genetic analyses of M. pyrifera in the northeastern and southeastern Pacific (Alberto et al ., 2010, Johansson et al ., 2015, Camus et al ., 2018).…”

Impact of persistent barrier to gene flow and catastrophic events on red algae evolutionary history along the Chilean coast

“…Large-scale mortality of intertidal and subtidal communities as a result of tectonically uplifted shoreline has been widely recorded in central-southern Chile (Castilla, 1988;Castilla et al, 2010;Jaramillo et al, 2012). Local/regional extirpations followed by recolonizations from sources populations not necessarily located nearby can lead to genetic anomalies that present the same signature as classical phylogeographic breaks but are not linked to the existence of any barrier to gene flow (Parvizi et al, 2019;Vaux et al, 2021;Parvizi et al, 2022;Vaux et al, 2022;Vaux et al, 2023). In Chile, it has been shown that regional disturbance events can rapidly reshape the pattern of distribution of genetic diversity in coastal species (Brante et al, 2019;Becheler et al, 2020).…”