Abstract
Polymorphic microsatellite DNA parentage analysis was used to investigate the spatio-temporal variability of self-recruitment in populations of two anemonefishes: Amphiprion ocellaris and A. perideraion. Tissue samples of A. ocellaris (n = 364) and A. perideraion (n = 105) were collected from fringing reefs around two small islands (Barrang Lompo and Samalona) in Spermonde Archipelago, Indonesia. Specimens were genotyped based on seven microsatellite loci for A. ocellaris and five microsatellite loci for A. perideraion, and parentage assignment as well as site fidelity were calculated. Both species showed high levels of self-recruitment: 65.2% of juvenile A. ocellaris in Samalona were the progeny of parents from the same island, while on Barrang Lompo 47.4% of A. ocellaris and 46.9% of A. perideraion juveniles had parents from that island. Self-recruitment of A. ocellaris in Barrang Lompo varied from 44% to 52% between the two sampling periods. The site fidelity of A. ocellaris juveniles that returned to their reef site in Barang Lompo was up to 44%, while for A. perideraion up to 19%. In Samalona, the percentage of juveniles that returned to their natal reef site ranged from 8% to 11%. Exchange of progeny between the two study islands, located 7.5 km apart, was also detected via parentage assignments. The larger Samalona adult population of A. ocellaris was identified as the parents of 21% of Barrang Lompo juveniles, while the smaller adult population on Barrang Lompo were the parents of only 4% of Samalona juveniles. High self-recruitment and recruitment to nearby island reefs have important implications for management and conservation of anemonefishes. Small MPAs, preferably on every island/reef, should ensure that a part of the population is protected to enable replenishment by the highly localised recruitment behaviour observed in these species.
Highlights
Self-recruitment is defined as the proportion of larvae returning to and settling in their natal population, whereas population connectivity is the linking of distinct populations by individual dispersal or migration [1]
The pelagic larval duration (PLD), which varies from days to weeks in fish [7], affects dispersal capability [8], dispersal distances are potentially influenced by oceanographic processes [9], geographic location and flow variability of ocean currents [10], as well as larval behaviour, such as vertical positioning, swimming and olfactory reef-sensing [11,12,13,14]
The null hypothesis of linkage disequilibrium for the diploid case was tested through pairwise comparisons of loci
Summary
Self-recruitment is defined as the proportion of larvae returning to and settling in their natal population, whereas population connectivity is the linking of distinct populations by individual dispersal or migration [1]. A commonly used genetic marker are microsatellites, simple repetitive sequences located throughout the eukaryote nuclear genome [20] Because of their high variability they are useful for fine-scale ecological studies, such as parentage analysis [21]. Parentage analysis uses data from polymorphic microsatellites for relationship reconstruction based on the maximum likelihood method, where juveniles are assigned to the most likely parent from a data set of potential parents [22] This method has been proven a powerful tool for investigating self-recruitment in marine fishes [23,24,25,26], identifying connectivity among fish populations [27,28], and determining whether larvae of marine organisms remain close to their origin over small scales (e.g., among groups within a population) [29]
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