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，对于构建贴合实际的种群动态空间显式模型至关重要。当前已有两种方法可用于估算海洋种群间的进化连通水平，即理论种群遗传模型与经验种群遗传模型，但二者具备互补性的研究视角却极少被结合运用。本研究将模拟幼虫扩散的空间显式拉格朗日（Lagrangian）模型与理论遗传模型，与针对加勒比海海洋生物最全面的基因流研究进行整合。研究从分布于广阔加勒比海域的26个采样点中收集了871个遗传株系（genets），该样本量覆盖了模型中1900个潜在独特遗传株系的45.8%。在粗尺度分析下，造礁珊瑚团块滨珊瑚（Montastraea annularis）种群的模拟遗传结构估算结果与经验遗传数据间存在显著一致性。不过，二者对中美洲北部珊瑚礁种群间连通性的估算结果存在差异，这暗示除扩散过程外，其他过程可能在该区域占据主导地位。此外，本研究还细化了此前被报道的加勒比海东西向基因流屏障的地理位置与孔隙度。本研究采用多维度研究路径，整合遗传数据与幼虫扩散、遗传预测的空间显式模型，为理解演化时间尺度上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研究视角。