Geographic concordance of genetic barriers in New Zealand coastal marine species

Abstract

Comparative phylogeography is recognized as a powerful tool to discern common patterns of connectivity across species, information that can be crucial in assisting the design of protected area networks. Previously, qualitative analyses have been undertaken in New Zealand waters in order to find concordance in marine dispersal barriers. This study presents the first attempt to quantitatively measure the congruence in genetic divergence breaks among 21 New Zealand marine coastal invertebrates, while accounting for the effects of variable sampling scale, life history traits and marker type. Previously recognized phylogeographic barriers to dispersal were found to be significant across species, such as the North–South Island differentiation and a northern genetic break at Cape Reinga. Low‐dispersal species exhibited additional locations of common significant divergence. Some of the differences in genetic barriers observed among species may be more related to the habitat type of the species (intertidal zone or subtidal) and the marker type used in the study (mitochondrial DNA or microsatellites), than to the dispersal traits of the species (high or low dispersal). Despite some limitations, the approach implemented here has significant advantages and permits the use of data from a wide variety of studies. This study provides the first quantitative insight into community‐wide genetic barriers within New Zealand's coastal marine ecosystem and provides directions for future investigations of this type in other regions.

Spatial and temporal stability in the genetic structure of a marine crab despite a biogeographic break

“…Evidence for this phenomenon has been observed in different coastal areas. For example, genetic differences were observed for gobiid fishes located on opposite sides of the Mona Passage in the Caribbean Sea 46 , for different benthic invertebrates on the North and South islands of New Zealand 47 and the Southeast Australian Biogeographic Barrier 48 , and for stomatopods located in Northern and Southern Indonesia 49 . However, the biogeographic discontinuities are not impermeable for all species.…”

Spatial and temporal variation in the predicted dispersal of marine larvae around coastal Aotearoa New Zealand

“…Particles representing larvae of marine species were released from 15 locations to determine trajectories and dispersal patterns (Figure 1; Supplementary Table 1). The locations were chosen to be representative of standard sampling sites from a range of genetic studies that have estimated genetic connectivity around the coastline (Arranz, 2017;Arranz et al, 2021a), including sufficient sites to cover the entire coastline and an appropriate number that could be analyzed in biophysical simulations within a reasonable timeframe. Several of these locations were located within or adjacent to existing Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).…”

Population genetic and genomic approaches for the management of the blackfoot paua, Haliotis iris Gmelin 1791, within the genus context

“…) in New Zealand, however iwi stewardship of the rohe moana (land) may have played a pivotal role in the decision. As far as it is concerned, oceanographic processes associated with coastal geomorphology affect (to a greater or lesser extent) the distribution of the genetic variation of marine species (reviewed by Arranz et al, 2021), but it is uncertain how well know this situation was decades ago. Interestingly, management areas prior to the establishment of the quota management system (QMS) were also smaller than the existing ones at least in the South Island (Dr. Tom McCowan, pers.…”

“…The genetic break between the North and South Island of New Zealand has been described around the Cook Strait region for some benthic species (reviewed by Ross et al, 2009;by Gardner et al, 2010) with species-specific southern boundaries (Nagel et al, 2015;Papa et al, 2022). These genetic patterns, including that described for pāua, usually correspond to the physical oceanography in the country (reviewed by Arranz et al, 2021) and to the complex oceanography around the Cook Strait region between the two islands (Bowman et al, 1983).…”

“…National scale genetic studies have revealed a natural biogeographic (genetic) split between a northern group (all of the North Island plus Golden Bay, Tasman Bay and the Marlborough Sounds) and a southern group (all the rest of the South Island) in New Zealand for numerous marine species (Apte & Gardner, 2002;Waters & Roy, 2004;Goldstien et al, 2006), however the differentiation of this particular site for pāua was not detected in previous studies using mtDNA or microsatellites . For a few of these marine species, the split appears to be at the Cook Strait, but for the vast majority it appears to be south of the Cook Strait, in the region of Cape Campbell on the east coast and Kahurangi Point on the west coast (reviewed by Gardner et al, 2010;Arranz et al, 2021). Considering that the Cook Strait is only 22 km wide and that the larvae of H. iris can be transported up to 80 km from the original releasing point under certain hydrodynamic conditions (Stephens et al, 2006), it cannot be ruled out that Cape Campbell may act as a source population for pāua larvae from the North Island transported by the ECC that contribute to the genetic differentiation of this site.…”