POPULATION GENETICS, DEMOGRAPHIC CONNECTIVITY, AND THE DESIGN OF MARINE RESERVES

Genetic analyses of marine population structure often find only slight geographic differentiation in species with high dispersal potential. Interpreting the significance of this slight genetic signal has been difficult because even mild genetic structure implies very limited demographic exchange between populations, but slight differentiation could also be due to sampling error. Examination of genetic isolation by distance, in which close populations are more similar than distant ones, has the potential to increase confidence in the significance of slight genetic differentiation. Simulations of one-dimensional stepping stone populations with particular larval dispersal regimes shows that isolation by distance…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• DA
  David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• AW
  Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• PC
  Pew Charitable Trusts
• NC
  National Center For Environmental Assessment