Cryptic species and hybridisation in corals: challenges and opportunities for conservation and restoration

  1. Cynthia Riginos
  2. Iva Popovic
  3. Zoe Meziere
  4. Vhon Garcia
  5. Ilha Byrne
  6. Samantha M. Howitt
  7. Hisatake Ishida
  8. Kevin Bairos-Novak
  9. Adriana Humanes
  10. Hugo Scharfenstein
  11. Thomas Richards
  12. Ethan Briggs
  13. Vanessa Clark
  14. Chuan Lei
  15. Mariam Khan
  16. Katharine E. Prata

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.24072/pcjournal.492
  2. Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology

    Biological conservation aims at protecting the genetic diversity generated by evolutionary processes over the course of life's history on earth (Allendorf and Luikart 2007), and to be effective, it requires that its fundamental units (among which populations and species) be delimited as precisely as possible. This exercise is particularly important for corals because hybridisation and introgression have played a fundamental role in shaping their contemporary diversity (eg Veron 1995). 

    In their review paper, Riginos et al (2024) show that 68% of nominal taxa investigated for genomic population structure bear the molecular signature of partial reproductive isolation, and can be considered as cryptic genetic groups. Another review study (published a day before the preprint of Riginos et al), converges in the finding that cryptic diversity is rampant in nominal coral species (Grupstra et al 2024). This result has strong bearing on the study of coral biology; as Riginos et al state, "any coral investigation that does not genotype the corals under study risks treating a heterogeneous mix of partially reproductively isolated taxa as a single species." The stakes are therefore high, given the ecological importance of corals and the ecosystem services they provide. 

    While Grupstra et al (2024) discusses the impact of cryptic coral diversity in the context of functional differences in thermal adaptation and the processes that lead to cryptic lineages, Riginos et al (2024) provide a quantitative review of cryptic lineages within nominal species, providing reproducible criteria for delineation, details the importance of detecting hybrids, summarises how biodiversity metrics and conservation efforts can be biased by unrecognised cryptic lineages, offer recommendations on how to recognise and deal with cryptic diversity, and discuss how corals can be regarded as highly valuable model systems to study adaptation and speciation. The study of Riginos et al (2024) is therefore a must-read to all coral biologists, especially those involved in biological conservation.

    References

    Fred W. Allendorf  and Gordon Luikart (2007) Conservation and Genetics of Populations. Blackwell Publishing, Malden MA, USA.

    Carsten G. B. Grupstra, Matías Gómez-Corrales, James E. Fifer, Hannah E. Aichelman, Kirstin S. Meyer-Kaiser, Carlos Prada, Sarah W. Davies (2024) Integrating cryptic diversity into coral evolution, symbiosis and conservation. Nat Ecol Evol 8, 622–636 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02319-y

    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 Prata (2024) Cryptic species and hybridisation in corals: challenges and opportunities for conservation and restoration. EcoEvoRxiv, ver.2 peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Evol Biol https://doi.org/10.32942/X2502X

    J. E. N. Veron (1995) Corals in Space and Time: The Biogeography and Evolution of the Scleractinia.  Cornell University Press

  3. Version published to 10.32942/x2502x