Putatively adaptive genetic variation in the giant California sea cucumber (Parastichopus californicus) as revealed by environmental association analysis of restriction‐site associated DNA sequencing data

Understanding the spatial scale of local adaptation and the factors associated with adaptive diversity are important objectives for ecology and evolutionary biology, and have significant implications for effective conservation and management of wild populations and natural resources. In this study, we used an environmental association analysis (EAA) to identify important bioclimatic variables correlated with putatively adaptive genetic variation in a benthic marine invertebrate – the giant California sea cucumber (Parastichopus californicus) – spanning coastal British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. We used a redundancy analysis (RDA) with 3,699 SNPs obtained using RAD sequencing to detect candidate markers associated with 11 bioclimatic variables, including sea bottom and surface conditions, across two spatial scales (entire study area and within sub-regions). At the broadest scale, RDA revealed 59 candidate SNPs, 86% of which were associated with mean bottom temperature. Similar pat...