Cryptic species and hybridisation in corals: challenges and opportunities for conservation and restorationuse asterix (*) to get italics

Cynthia Riginos, Iva Popovic, Zoe Meziere, Vhon Garcia, Ilha Byrne, Samantha Howitt, Hisatake Ishida, Kevin Bairos-Novak, Adriana Humanes, Hugo Scharfenstein, Thomas Richards, Ethan Briggs, Vanessa Clark, Chuan Lei, Mariam Khan, Katharine PrataPlease use the format "First name initials family name" as in "Marie S. Curie, Niels H. D. Bohr, Albert Einstein, John R. R. Tolkien, Donna T. Strickland"

2024

<p style="text-align: justify;">The conservation and management of coral reef ecosystems will benefit from accurate assessments of reef-building coral species diversity. However, the true diversity of corals may be obfuscated by cryptic yet genetically distinct groups, which are likely more pervasive than currently recognised. Here, we investigate the prevalence of cryptic coral groups and assess evidence for their permeability to gene flow (hybridisation) via a structured literature review of genomic studies. Using reproducible criteria to detect distinct genetic groups that are sympatric, we find that 68% of nominal species represented in population genomic studies show evidence for comprising partially reproductively isolated groups and that these distinct groups are often linked by gene flow. Cryptic genetic groups frequently segregate by environment, especially depth, and may differ by phenotypic characteristics including resilience to heat stress. This hidden biodiversity creates challenges for coral conservation and restoration planning that are not well appreciated, including hiding true population declines, biasing estimates for species’ phenotypic breadth, overestimating the resilience of species to stressors, yielding uncertainty in evolutionary dynamics inferred from past studies, and implying that reproductive barriers may limit mating between local and translocated corals. Incorporating the expectation that coral cryptic taxa with incomplete species boundaries will frequently be encountered is critical to the long-term success of coral conservation and restoration programs. Studying these phenomena in more detail will directly benefit conservation and restoration goals. Thus, we detail recommendations for best practice and strategies for identifying cryptic taxa and hybridisation. In addition, cryptic coral taxa present an untapped resource for studying speciation which could provide rich opportunities for collaboration among coral and speciation biologists and fill key knowledge gaps relevant to conservation and restoration.</p>

https://doi.org/10.48610/76456b1You should fill this box only if you chose 'All or part of the results presented in this preprint are based on data'. URL must start with http:// or https://

https://doi.org/10.48610/76456b1You should fill this box only if you chose 'Scripts were used to obtain or analyze the results'. URL must start with http:// or https://

cryptic species, adaptation, hybridization, coral, introgression, gene flow, conservation, restoration, speciation

NonePlease indicate the methods that may require specialised expertise during the peer review process (use a comma to separate various required expertises).

Adaptation, Evolutionary Applications, Hybridization / Introgression, Population Genetics / Genomics, Speciation

Malin Pinsky - mpinsky@ucsc.edu, Michael Hellberg - mhellbe@lsu.edu, Mikhail V. Matz - matz@utexas.edu, Nancy Knowlton - knowltonn@gmail.com, Monica Medina - mum55@psu.edu, Samuel Starko - samuel.starko@gmail.com, John Rippe - jpr6mg@gmail.com, Andrea M. Quattrini - quattrinia@si.edu, Julia Baum - baum@uvic.ca, Andrea Quattrini [quattrinia@si.edu] suggested: CAtalina Ramirez Portilla catalina.rzpl@gmail.com, Andrea Quattrini [quattrinia@si.edu] suggested: Mike Connelly ConnellyM@si.edu, Michael Hellberg [mhellbe@lsu.edu] suggested: Erika Johnston - Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Dan Barshis [dbarshis@odu.edu] suggested: Apologies but I am currently traveling for field research and unable to complete a review at this time., Monica Medina [mum55@psu.edu] suggested: Carlos Prada <prada@uri.edu>, Monica Medina [mum55@psu.edu] suggested: Matias Gomez <matias_gomez@uri.edu>, Nancy Knowlton [knowltonn@gmail.com] suggested: I have been retired for five years and have not worked actively in this area for a decade. There are lots of people who would make better reviewers than I would. Some are:, Nancy Knowlton [knowltonn@gmail.com] suggested: Andrea Quattrini, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, quattrinia@si.edu, Nancy Knowlton [knowltonn@gmail.com] suggested: Pim Bongaerts, California Academy of Sciences, pbongaerts@calacademy.org, Nancy Knowlton [knowltonn@gmail.com] suggested: Carlos Prada, University of Rhode Island, prada@uri.edu, Nancy Knowlton [knowltonn@gmail.com] suggested: Zak Forsman, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, zac@hawaii.edu

e.g. John Doe john@doe.com

No need for them to be recommenders of PCIEvolBiol. Please do not suggest reviewers for whom there might be a conflict of interest. Reviewers are not allowed to review preprints written by close colleagues (with whom they have published in the last four years, with whom they have received joint funding in the last four years, or with whom they are currently writing a manuscript, or submitting a grant proposal), or by family members, friends, or anyone for whom bias might affect the nature of the review - see the code of conduct

2024-02-15 10:29:46

Eric Pante