Emergent patterns of population genetic structure for a coral reef community

What shapes variation in genetic structure within a community of co-distributed species is a central but difficult question for the field of population genetics. With a focus on the isolated coral reef ecosystem of the Hawaiian Archipelago, we assessed how life history traits influence population genetic structure for 35 reef animals. Despite the archipelago's stepping stone configuration, isolation by distance was the least common type of genetic structure, detected in 4 species. Regional structuring (i.e., division of sites into genetically and spatially distinct regions) was most common, detected in 20 species, and nearly all endemics and habitat specialists. Seven species displayed chaotic (spatially unordered) structuring, and all were non-endemic generalist species. Chaotic structure also associated with relatively high global FST. Pelagic larval duration (PLD) was not a strong predictor of variation in population structure (R2= 0.22), but accounting for higher FST values of chaot...