An evaluation of small-scale genetic diversity and the mating system in Zostera noltii on an intertidal sandflat in the Wadden Sea

Zipperle, Andreas M.; Coyer, James A.; Reise, Karsten; Stam, Wytze T.; Olsen, Jeanine L.

doi:10.1093/aob/mcq214

Cited by 33 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Marine macrophytes (seaweeds and seagrasses) in particular exhibit a number of traits to suggest that these mechanisms may be prevalent. Unlike many marine species that have large dispersal capacities, marine macrophytes generally exhibit restrictive dispersal with seaweed spores settling within a few metres of the parent alga (Dayton 1985, Schiel and Foster 1986, Santelices 1990, Kendrick and Walker 1991, 1995, Norton 1992 and seagrass pollen and seed dispersal often limited to the meadow in which the adult plant inhabits (Zipperle et al 2011, Kendrick et al 2012. This often results in highly structured distributions (Valero et al 2011, Nicastro et al 2013, Robuchon et al 2014, Assis et al 2015, Neiva et al 2015 and means local ecotypes may be a common characteristic (Gerard and Du Bois 1988) in marine macrophytes, with any associated population decline unable to be ameliorated by migration (Bennett et al 2015, Assis et al 2017, Molinos et al 2017).…”

Section: Box 1 What Are Adaptation and Plasticity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in driving intraspecific variability in thermal niches of marine macrophytes

et al. 2017

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Climate change is driving the redistribution of species at a global scale and documenting and predicting species' responses to warming is a principal focus of contemporary ecology. When interpreting and predicting their responses to warming, species are generally treated as single homogenous physiological units. However, local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity can result in intraspecific differences in thermal niche. Therefore, population loss may also not only occur from trailing edges. In species with low dispersal capacity this will have profound impacts for the species as a whole, as local population loss will not be offset by immigration of warm tolerant individuals. Recent evidence from terrestrial forests has shown that incorporation of intraspecific variation in thermal niche is vital to accurately predicting species responses to warming. However, marine macrophytes (i.e. seagrasses and seaweeds) that form some of the world's most productive and diverse ecosystems have not been examined in the same context. We conducted a literature review to determine how common intraspecific variation in thermal physiology is in marine macrophytes. We find that 90% of studies identified (n = 42) found clear differences in thermal niche between geographically separated populations. Therefore, non-trailing edge populations may also be vulnerable to future warming trends and given their limited dispersal capacity, such population loss may not be offset by immigration. We also explore how next generation sequencing (NGS) is allowing unprecedented mechanistic insight into plasticity and adaptation. We conclude that in the 'genomic era' it may be possible to link understanding of plasticity and adaptation at the genetic level through to changes in populations providing novel insights on the redistribution of populations under future climate change.

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Section: Box 1 What Are Adaptation and Plasticity?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The importance of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in driving intraspecific variability in thermal niches of marine macrophytes

et al. 2017

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“…Furthermore, given that also ‘long‐distance’ subaqueous pollen transport is limited mostly to the range of metres (Zipperle et al . ; McMahon et al . ; Sinclair et al .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should we sync? Seascape‐level genetic and ecological factors determine seagrass flowering patterns

et al. 2015

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Summary Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in flowering occur in many plant species with abiotic pollination and may confer fitness advantages through mechanisms such as predator satiation or pollination efficiency. Environmental factors such as light quality or quantity and temperature play an important role in inducing synchronization on wide geographic scales. On a smaller geographic scale, external factors such as resource availability and herbivory are theorized to trigger flowering, while genetic factors may also play an important role. In this study, we assessed the importance of ecological and genetic factors in shaping seascape‐level spatial heterogeneity in flowering of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica. By investigating spatially close sites (<20 km) with similar seascape configurations and depth, we assume that major environmental drivers (temperature and light) were equivalent. We assessed four ecological factors (productivity, leaf nitrogen and carbon content and herbivory) and three genetic factors (heterozygosity, relatedness and clonality) to assess three hypotheses for synchronized flowering in P. oceanica: (i) clone synchronization (internal clock hypothesis), (ii) variation in nutrient availability, potentially caused by spatial heterogeneity in herbivory rates or nutrient translocation via clonal integration (resource budget hypothesis) or (iii) kin selection and sibling synchronization. Internal relatedness and heterozygosity had a significant positive effect on the abundance of flowers. Moreover, productivity and genotypic richness (clonality) were negatively associated with flower density, although at a lower level of significance. In addition, we found that clones were almost exclusively shared among mass‐flowering patches and patches without mass‐flowering, respectively. Synthesis. The results shed new light on seagrass flowering patterns and on the mechanisms of flower synchronization at the patch level within a wider spatial scale. We found support for the kin selection hypothesis and indirect evidence for the resource budget hypothesis. Thus, a combination of mainly genetic but also ecological factors causes the observed heterogeneous flowering patterns in Posidonia oceanica seascapes. In addition, we found a strong positive relationship between the number of flowers and heterozygosity, adding evidence to the controversial association between heterozygosity and fitness when a limited number of loci are used. To our knowledge, this study is the first to link both ecological and genetic factors with flower abundance in a species with a presumed masting strategy.

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“…Paternity analyses (or analyses of progeny arrays) have been a very efficient method with which to study mating systems (see, for example, Zipperle et al, 2011). Moreover, paternity analyses enable the detection of apomixis or intragametophytic selfing that would otherwise be difficult to detect by analyzing population structure alone.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

O father where art thou? Paternity analyses in a natural population of the haploid–diploid seaweed Chondrus crispus

et al. 2014

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The link between life history traits and mating systems in diploid organisms has been extensively addressed in the literature, whereas the degree of selfing and/or inbreeding in natural populations of haploid-diploid organisms, in which haploid gametophytes alternate with diploid sporophytes, has been rarely measured. Dioecy has often been used as a proxy for the mating system in these organisms. Yet, dioecy does not prevent the fusion of gametes from male and female gametophytes originating from the same sporophyte. This is likely a common occurrence when spores from the same parent are dispersed in clumps and recruit together. This pattern of clumped spore dispersal has been hypothesized to explain significant heterozygote deficiency in the dioecious haploid-diploid seaweed Chondrus crispus. Fronds and cystocarps (structures in which zygotes are mitotically amplified) were sampled in two 25 m 2 plots located within a high and a low intertidal zone and genotyped at 5 polymorphic microsatellite loci in order to explore the mating system directly using paternity analyses. Multiple males sired cystocarps on each female, but only one of the 423 paternal genotypes corresponded to a field-sampled gametophyte. Nevertheless, larger kinship coefficients were detected between males siring cystocarps on the same female in comparison with males in the entire population, confirming restricted spermatial and clumped spore dispersal. Such dispersal mechanisms may be a mode of reproductive assurance due to nonmotile gametes associated with putatively reduced effects of inbreeding depression because of the free-living haploid stage in C. crispus.

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An evaluation of small-scale genetic diversity and the mating system in Zostera noltii on an intertidal sandflat in the Wadden Sea

Abstract: Moderate disturbances intrinsic to the intertidal habitat appear to facilitate seed recruitment by gap formation. Pollen dispersal distances are sufficient to maintain outcrossing and high clonal diversity.

Cited by 33 publications

References 55 publications

The importance of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in driving intraspecific variability in thermal niches of marine macrophytes

The importance of phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation in driving intraspecific variability in thermal niches of marine macrophytes

Should we sync? Seascape‐level genetic and ecological factors determine seagrass flowering patterns

O father where art thou? Paternity analyses in a natural population of the haploid–diploid seaweed Chondrus crispus

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