%0 Journal Article
%T Patterns of genetic structuring in the coral Pocillopora damicornis on reefs in East Africa
%A Petra Souter
%A Oskar Henriksson
%A Niklas Olsson
%A Mats Grahn
%J BMC Ecology
%D 2009
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6785-9-19
%X Gene flow among reefs was found to be variable, with a significant overall genetic subdivision (FST = 0.023 ¡À 0.004 SE; p < 0.001), however, only 34% of all pairwise population comparisons showed significant differentiation. Panmixia could not be rejected between reefs separated by as much as 697 km, while other sites, separated by only a single kilometre, were found to be significantly differentiated. An analysis of molecular variance indicated that population genetic differentiation was significant only at the smaller spatial scale (< 10 km), whereas panmixia could not be rejected between groups of samples separated by over 100 km. Estimates of contemporary gene flow showed similar results, with numbers of first generation migrants within each population ranging from 0 to 4 (~5% of the total number of colonies sampled) and likely dispersal distances ranging between 5 and 500 km.This study showed that population differentiation in P. damicornis varied over spatial scales and that this variability occurred at both evolutionary and ecological time scales. This paradox is discussed in light of stochastic recruitment and small scale population structures found in other species of coral. The study also identifies potential source reefs, such as those within Mnemba Conservation area near Zanzibar and genetically isolated reefs such as those within Malindi Marine National Park and Reserve in northern Kenya.Current threats to coral reefs, such as elevated sea water temperatures, coral disease, pollution and destructive and unsustainable fishing methods, have depleted or degraded more than half of the world's coral reefs [1-4]. The poor condition of many of these reefs is attributable to the extreme El Nin£¿ event in 1998, which functionally destroyed approximately 16% of the world's coral reefs through bleaching-induced mass mortality. In 2004, slightly more than 40% of the reefs affected by the El Nin£¿ showed signs of recovery. Most of these reefs were exposed to minimal a
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6785/9/19