Journal Article

Large-Scale Natural Disturbance Alters Genetic Population Structure of the Sailfin Molly,Poecilia latipinna

Apodaca, Joseph J., Travis, Joseph, Jue, Nathaniel K., Schrader, Matthew, Trexler, Joel C.

2013

Overview

Many inferences about contemporary rates of gene flow are based on the assumption that the observed genetic structure among populations is stable. Recent studies have uncovered several cases in which this assumption is tenuous. Most of those studies have focused on the effects that regular environmental fluctuations can have on genetic structure and gene flow patterns. Occasional catastrophic disturbances could also alter either the distribution of habitat or the spatial distribution of organisms in a way that affects population structure. However, evidence of such effects is sparse in the literature because it is difficult to obtain. Hurricanes, in particular, have the potential to exert dramatic effects on population structure of organisms found on islands or coral reefs or in near shore and coastal habitats. Here we draw on a historic genetic data set and new data to suggest that the genetic structure of sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) populations in north Florida was altered dramatically by an unusually large and uncommon type of storm surge associated with Hurricane Dennis in 2005. We compare the spatial pattern of genetic variation in these populations after Hurricane Dennis to the patterns described in an earlier study in this same area. We use comparable genetic data from another region of Florida, collected in the same two periods, to estimate the amount of change expected from typical temporal variation in population structure. The comparative natural history of sailfin mollies in these two regions indicates that the change in population structure produced by the storm surge is not the result of many local extinctions with recolonization from a few refugia but emerged from a pattern of mixing and redistribution.

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press,University of Chicago, acting through its Press
• Subject: Agnatha. Pisces / Analysis of Variance / Animal and plant ecology / Animal populations / Animal, plant and microbial ecology / Animals / Autocorrelation / Biological and medical sciences / Coral reefs / Cyclonic Storms - history / Ecosystem / Evolution / Extinction / Fish / Florida / Flow pattern / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / Gene flow / Gene Flow - genetics / General aspects / Genetic diversity / Genetic structure / Genetic structures / Genetic Variation / Genetics / Genetics of eukaryotes. Biological and molecular evolution / Genetics, Population / Genotype / Geographic regions / History, 21st Century / Homogenization / Hurricanes / Isoenzymes - genetics / Linkage Disequilibrium / Natural history / Natural History Note / Poecilia - genetics / Polymerase Chain Reaction / Population genetics / Population genetics, reproduction patterns / Population structure / Recolonization / Refugia / Spatial distribution / Storm surges / Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution