Interspecific, Spatial and Temporal Variability of Self-Recruitment in Anemonefishes

Abstract

Polymorphic microsatellite DNA parentage analysis was used to investigate the spatio-temporal variability of self-recruitment in populations of two anemonefishes: Amphiprion ocellaris and A. perideraion. Tissue samples of A. ocellaris (n = 364) and A. perideraion (n = 105) were collected from fringing reefs around two small islands (Barrang Lompo and Samalona) in Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia. Specimens were genotyped based on seven microsatellite loci for A. ocellaris and five microsatellite loci for A. perideraion, and parentage assignment as well as site fidelity were calculated. Both species showed high levels of self-recruitment: 65.2% of juvenile A. ocellaris in Samalona were the progeny of parents from the same island, while on Barrang Lompo 47.4% of A. ocellaris and 46.9% of A. perideraion juveniles had parents from that island. Self-recruitment of A. ocellaris in Barrang Lompo varied from 44% to 52% between the two sampling periods. The site fidelity of A. ocellaris juveniles that returned to their reef site in Barang Lompo was up to 44%, while for A. perideraion up to 19%. In Samalona, the percentage of juveniles that returned to their natal reef site ranged from 8% to 11%. Exchange of progeny between the two study islands, located 7.5 km apart, was also detected via parentage assignments. The larger Samalona adult population of A. ocellaris was identified as the parents of 21% of Barrang Lompo juveniles, while the smaller adult population on Barrang Lompo were the parents of only 4% of Samalona juveniles. High self-recruitment and recruitment to nearby island reefs have important implications for management and conservation of anemonefishes. Small MPAs, preferably on every island/reef, should ensure that a part of the population is protected to enable replenishment by the highly localised recruitment behaviour observed in these species.

Reduced Genetic Diversity in the Clown Anemonefish Amphiprion ocellaris in Exploited Reefs of Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia

“…A strong genetic population structure was also found at a larger scale in the same species as well as in other coral reef organisms in this region (Kochzius and Nuryanto, 2008;Timm and Kochzius, 2008;Knittweis et al, 2009;Nuryanto and Kochzius, 2009;Timm et al, 2012;Dohna et al, 2015;Hui et al, 2016Hui et al, , 2017. In addition, the previous study on these two island populations revealed high self-recruitment in A. ocellaris of about 40-60% (Madduppa et al, 2014b), which explains the genetic differentiation. …”

“…This strategy prevents the loss of rare alleles from older and bigger individuals. Second, the implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs), which take into account high self-recruitment in A. ocellaris (Madduppa et al, 2014b) and the limited connectivity of populations (Timm and Kochzius, 2008;Timm et al, 2012Timm et al, , 2017. High selfrecruitment implies that the populations are more vulnerable to fishing activity (Thorrold et al, 2001).…”

Small Scale Genetic Population Structure of Coral Reef Organisms in Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia

“…In another study, the anemonefish population of this reef showed high proportions of selfrecruitment (up to 60%; Madduppa et al, 2014b) and a high proportion of private alleles (Madduppa, 2012), explaining signals of restricted connectivity to other reefs. High selfrecruitment was generally measured for A. ocellaris (Madduppa et al, 2014b) and its sibling species A. percula (Berumen et al, 2012), raising the question, if the degree of self-recruitment would differ in the more offshore and shelf edge areas of the archipelago, being influenced by stronger currents and increased larval input from other populations. This question should be investigated in a few select populations to draw important conclusions in this regard.…”

Close genetic connectivity of soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum in Indonesia and its implication for marine protected area

“…The distribution patterns of marine organisms can be detected through their genetic connectivity (Madduppa et al, 2014a). The spread of organisms is influenced by several factors such as currents, the biology of larvae, and geographical of location (Adam, 2014).…”

“…Molecular approaches have been used to reveal species identification (Kusuma et al, 2016;Akbar et al, 2014;Jefri et al, 2015;Negara et al, 2016;Prehadi et al, 2015), and dynamics of populations (Madduppa et al, 2014a;Saleky et al, 2016;Sembiring et al, 2015). Some soft coral genetic research has been done a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Octocorallia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) based on mitochondrial proteincoding sequences.…”