Data from: Connectivity of Caribbean coral populations: complementary insights from empirical and modelled gene flow

Understanding patterns of connectivity among populations of marine organisms is essential for the development of realistic, spatially explicit models of population dynamics. Two approaches, theoretical and empirical population genetic models, have been used to estimate levels of evolutionary connectivity among marine populations but rarely have their potentially-complementary insights been combined. Here, a spatially-realistic Lagrangian model of larval dispersal and a theoretical genetic model are integrated with the most extensive study of gene flow in a Caribbean marine organism. The 871 genets collected from 26 sites spread over the wider Caribbean sub-sampled 45.8% of the 1900 potential unique genets in the model. At a coarse scale, significant consensus between modelled estimates of genetic structure and empirical genetic data for populations of the reef-building coral Montastraea annularis is observed. However, modelled and empirical data differ in their estimates of connectivity among northern Mesoamerican reefs indicating that processes other than dispersal may dominate here. Further, the geographic location and porosity of the previously described east-west barrier to gene flow in the Caribbean is refined. A multi-prong approach, integrating genetic data and spatially-realistic models of larval dispersal and genetic projection, provides complementary insights into the processes underpinning population connectivity in marine invertebrates on evolutionary timescales.解析海洋生物种群间的连通模式，对于构建兼具真实性与空间显式性的种群动态模型至关重要。目前学界已采用理论种群遗传模型与实证种群遗传模型两种方法，估算海洋种群间的进化连通水平，但二者本应具备互补性的研究视角却极少被结合使用。本研究将具备空间真实性的幼虫扩散拉格朗日（Lagrangian）模型与理论遗传模型相结合，并结合针对加勒比海某海洋生物的迄今规模最大的基因流研究展开分析。本次研究从遍布广义加勒比海区的26个采样位点中共收集到871个遗传系，该样本量覆盖了模型中1900个潜在独特遗传系的45.8%。在粗尺度下，造礁珊瑚环纹菊珊瑚（Montastraea annularis）的种群模型遗传结构估算结果，与实证遗传数据之间存在显著一致性。但针对中美洲北部礁群的连通性估算结果，模型数据与实证数据却存在显著差异，这表明该区域的连通过程可能并非以扩散为主导，而是由其他过程主导。此外，本研究还对此前报道的加勒比海东西向基因流屏障的地理位置与孔隙度进行了修正与细化。这种结合遗传数据、空间真实性幼虫扩散模型与遗传投影模型的多维度研究方法，为解析进化时间尺度下海洋无脊椎动物种群连通性的核心驱动过程提供了互补性的研究视角。