Abstract
Understanding the structure and connectivity of coral populations is
fundamental for developing marine conservation policies, especially in
patchy environments such as archipelagos. The Nansei Islands, extending
more than 1,000 km in southwestern Japan, are characterized by high
levels of biodiversity and endemism, supported by coral reefs, although
precise, detailed genetic attributes of corals are still largely
unknown. In this study, we conducted population genomic analyses based
on genome-wide, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of Acropora
digitifera, a common species in the Nansei Islands, for which a
complete genome is available. With ~24x sequencing
coverage of entire genomes of 303 colonies collected at 21 locations, we
identified more than four million genome-wide SNPs. While population
structure analyses suggested weak genetic differentiation among sampled
locations, the most southwestern location (the west end of the Yaeyama
Islands) was genetically similar to the northernmost location (the
Tanegashima Islands), separated by >1,000 km. Although
examination of a migration network found a general tendency of northward
migration along the Kuroshio Current, a substantial amount of southward
migration was also detected, indicating important contributions of minor
ocean currents to coral larval dispersal. Moreover, heterogeneity in the
transition of effective population sizes among locations suggests
different histories for individual subpopulations. The unexpected
complexity of both past and present population dynamics in the Nansei
Islands implies that heterogeneity of ocean currents and local
environments, past and present, have influenced the population structure
of this species, highlighting the importance of local scale assessments
for effective coral restoration and management.