Genetic Structure of Native and Restored Populations of American Beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulataFern.) along the New Jersey Coast

Abstract

ABSTRACT Slaymaker, D.H.; Peek, M.S.; Wresilo, J.; Zeltner, D.C., and Saleh, Y.F., 2015. Genetic structure of native and restored populations of American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata Fern.) along the New Jersey coast. Ammophila breviligulata Fern. (American beachgrass) is planted extensively along the Atlantic coast of North America and in the Great Lakes region to stabilize damaged and constructed coastal dunes. Most A. breviligulata restorations are planted with a single cultivar for rapid dune stabilization. Restoration practice, however, is increasingly focused on maintaining native genetic diversity and restoring ecological services and function. We used intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers to characterize the genetic structure of four native and four restored A. breviligulata populations along the coast of New Jersey on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the United States. Native populations had high levels of genotypic diversity for a clonal species, whereas restored populations on con...