Population connectivity of the plating coral Agaricia lamarcki from southwest Puerto Rico

Abstract

Identifying genetic connectivity and discrete population boundaries is an important objective for management of declining Caribbean reef-building corals. A double digest restriction-associated DNA sequencing protocol was utilized to generate 321 single nucleotide polymorphisms to estimate patterns of horizontal and vertical gene flow in the brooding Caribbean plate coral, Agaricia lamarcki. Individual colonies (n = 59) were sampled from eight locations throughout southwestern Puerto Rico from six shallow (~ 10–20 m) and two mesophotic habitats (~ 30–40 m). Descriptive summary statistics (fixation index, FST), analysis of molecular variance, and analysis through landscape and ecological associations and discriminant analysis of principal components estimated high population connectivity with subtle subpopulation structure among all sampling localities.