Abstract
Recent molecular ecological studies have focused on how the relationships between physical and ecological factors influence marine biogeography. Comparative phylogeography using closely related species is a powerful approach to evaluate the role of ecological traits in the genetic variation of marine organisms. In the present study, we compared ecological traits and genetic variation in 3 species of the intertidal snail genus Monodonta that co-occur in the Japanese and Ryukyu archipelagoes. We found that M. labio was dominant in sheltered habitats and M. perplexa was dominant in wave-exposed habitats, while M. confusa showed no habitat specificity. This indicates that M. labio and M. perplexa are habitat specialists regarding wave exposure, while M. confusa is a generalist. M. labio and M. perplexa showed lower genetic diversity and greater genetic differentiation among populations than M. confusa. Our findings support the specialist-generalist variation hypothesis in a well-connected marine environment.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 135-146 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Marine Ecology Progress Series |
Volume | 657 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2021 Jan 7 |
Keywords
- Genetic structure
- Habitat range
- Intertidal gastropods
- Monodonta
- Phylogeography
- Sgvh
- Specialist-generalist variation hypothesis
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Aquatic Science
- Ecology