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Oceanographic barriers in an octopus

Which oceanographic barriers affect genetic connectivity of coastal species?

BACKGROUND

Fisheries are essential for food security, and they preferential target coastal species causing their decline. Despite their importance, it is unclear if such coastal species are a single panmictic population, or if they are structured into different stocks by oceanographic barriers, limiting conservation measures for sustainable exploitation of these natural resources. To address these questions, we studied an octopus species (Octopus insularis) that lives in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and is targeted by coastal fisheries.


QUESTIONS

To understand how the evolution of this species is shaped by oceanographic barriers and environmental change over the last glacial cycle, we employed the first population genomic study on an Octopus species to answer:

  1. Which oceanographic barriers caused population divergence?

  2. Did island colonization cause changes in genetic diversity within populations?

  3. Did changes in habitat suitability cause changes in effective population size?

IMPLICATIONS

These results showed how depth and oceanic currents caused divergence of this recently described species into six distinct stocks, and showed that genetic diversity is highly asymmetric among stocks. Such findings can inform conservation measures and facilitate a sustainable exploitation of this species by fisheries.

TEAM

POTENTIAL BACHELOR/MASTERS PROJECTS

There will be no more theses associated with this project.

Finished

Project Status

No

Recruiting?

1

Project Publications

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