A Donor Registry: Genomic Analyses of Posidonia australis Seagrass Meadows Identifies Adaptive Genotypes for Future-Proofing

Abstract

Globally, anthropogenic climate change has caused declines of seagrass ecosystems necessitating proactive restoration approaches that would ideally anticipate future climate scenarios, such as marine warming. In eastern Australia, estuaries with meadows of the endangered seagrass Posidonia australis have warmed and acidified over the past decade, and seagrass communities have declined in some estuaries. Securing these valuable habitats will require proactive conservation and restoration efforts that could be augmented with restoration focussed on boosting resilience to future climate. Understanding patterns of selection and where seagrass meadows are adapted to particular environmental conditions is key for identifying optimal donor material for restoration. We used single nucleotide polymorphisms and genotype by environment analyses to identify candidate loci under putative selection to environmental stressors and assess genomic variation and allelic turnover along stressor gradients. The most important physicochemical variables driving selection were associated with temperature, water turbidity, and pH. We developed a preliminary ‘donor registry’ of pre-adapted P. australis genotypes by mapping the distribution of alleles to visualise allelic composition of each sampled seagrass meadow. The registry could be used as a first step to select source material for future-proofing restoration projects. A next step is to establish manipulative experiments that will be required to test whether pre-adapted genotypes confer increased resistance to multiple environmental stressors.