Abstract
The high marine species diversity in the Indo-West Pacific declines sharply to the east and west of the Indonesian Archipelago. This biogeographic pattern has attracted attention for over a century, but the mechanisms generating such diversity gradients remain uncertain. Molecular genetic data can help address biogeographic mechanisms in at least 4 ways. They can provide (1) independent evidence for genetic boundaries between cryptic species, (2) a temporal framework for species divergence times, (3) phylogenetic reconstructions of species divergence patterns, and (4) information about the geography of allelic variants within species. Data from mitochondrial DNA variation in Pacific sea urchins show that (1) congeneric species are of recent origin, having diverged within the Pleistocene, (2) populations are genetically heterogeneous despite high dispersal potential, and (3) clines of mtDNA variation within species are similar to diversity clines in the entire fauna. Phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA variants does not support the center-of-overlap or center-of-accumulation models for biogeographic patterns in the Indo-West Pacific, but instead suggests that genetic differentiation and perhaps species formation can occur throughout the Indo-West Pacific.
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