Spatio-temporal patterns of demographic and genetic structure in the red starfish Echinaster sepositus

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Spatio-temporal patterns of demographic and genetic structure in the red starfish Echinaster sepositus Creu Palacín1*, Alex García-Cisneros1, Marta Arjona1, Owen S. Wangensteen2 and Rocío Pérez-Portela3 1 University of Barcelona, Department of Animal Biology, Spain 2 University of Salford, School of Environment & Life Sciences Salford, United Kingdom 3 University of Miami, Marine Biology & Ecology Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, United States Population structure has two different, but related, components: demographic structure and genetic structure. The first one is determined by all life-history processes, such as birth, death, reproduction and dispersal. The genetic structure is shaped by demographic structure, but also by other genetic processes such as selection, recombination and mutation. The spatial and temporal patterns of genetic variability in benthic invertebrates with pelagic larval stages determine the genetic structure of the cohorts at small scales. In this work, we analyzed the size structure as well as the genetic variability at spatial and temporal scales between different putative cohorts of the red starfish Echinaster sepositus. This species has lecithotrophic larvae, with limited dispersion capacity. Its populations show a typical patchy distribution at large scales, being locally abundant in some localities, while it can be absent from nearby areas. Assessment of population density and size structure was carried out in Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Girona, NW Mediterranean) every 6 months along 5 years, at two different depths. Furthermore, we studied the genetic structure at the same locality using eight polymorphic microsatellite markers on the first, third and fifth years. Two different cohorts (classified using the arm size of the individual) were genotyped separately in order to assess temporal patterns of genetic structure. For assessment of the genetic spatial variability, we genotyped twice another population from Blanes (Girona, NW Mediterranean), 35 km away. We did not find significant differences in population densities along the five years, nor between depths. The size structure followed a normal distribution. Arm sizes between 40 and 60 mm were the most abundant. Some differences in size were found between the two depths, with a trend of individuals from the deepest area being bigger. We did not found significant genetic differences between years for the two analyzed cohorts (< 30 mm and > 60 mm in arm size). However, observed heterozygosis was higher in small individuals from the two localities, indicating that the effective number of reproductive individuals may be increasing in these populations. Acknowledgements This work has been funded by project ChallenGen (CTM2013-48163) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Keywords: Echinaster sepositus, Spatio-temporal patterns, Genetic structure, size structure population, Asteroidea Conference: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies, Porto, Portugal, 5 Sep - 9 Sep, 2016. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: 1. ECOLOGY, BIODIVERSITY AND VULNERABLE ECOSYSTEMS Citation: Palacín C, García-Cisneros A, Arjona M, Wangensteen OS and Pérez-Portela R (2016). Spatio-temporal patterns of demographic and genetic structure in the red starfish Echinaster sepositus. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XIX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2016.05.00011 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 Apr 2016; Published Online: 02 Sep 2016. * Correspondence: Dr. Creu Palacín, University of Barcelona, Department of Animal Biology, Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain, cpalacin@ub.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Creu Palacín Alex García-Cisneros Marta Arjona Owen S Wangensteen Rocío Pérez-Portela Google Creu Palacín Alex García-Cisneros Marta Arjona Owen S Wangensteen Rocío Pérez-Portela Google Scholar Creu Palacín Alex García-Cisneros Marta Arjona Owen S Wangensteen Rocío Pérez-Portela PubMed Creu Palacín Alex García-Cisneros Marta Arjona Owen S Wangensteen Rocío Pérez-Portela Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.