Local adaptation and genetic diversity in giant kelp restoration

A reciprocal transplant of giant kelp between a recently bottlenecked warm-water site and a nearby cool-water site was conducted to test the roles of local adaptation and genetic diversity in restoration success. The number of parents that were crossed to create the outplanted cultures was also manipulated. Reduced-representation 3D-Genotyping by sequencing (3D-GBS) was performed on parent kelp, a selection of offspring prior to outplanting, and a selection of surviving outplanted offspring at the end of the experiment. This allowed us to characterize the genetic diversity and genetic composition of the populations and individuals in the experiment and to link genetic measures to experimental performance.