Population structure of Acropora
antonio ortiz
alortiz9 at hotmail.com
Thu Oct 28 09:57:52 EDT 1999
Dear all:
I wondered to received more information about the biological status of
acroporids species, principally about the population dynamic of Acropora
palmata. I'm doing some research on this area and at that moment I'm
collecting information about the population size using different mechanism,
number of parent colonies (standing colonies), number and size of fragments
or loose colonies generate by hurricane Georges. Also, I have information
of fragment transport (previously tagged) during hurricane Georges. High
survival of fragments (>70% ) after one year suggested that fragmentation is
an efficient mechanism to increase the population densities of these specie.
However, because asexuality is associated with both lowered genetic
variation and lowered evolutionary potential the next step of my research is
to estimate the genetic structure of the population.
I suggest that understanding the asexual and sexual reproduction of
individual coral species and the interrelationship between these phenomena
is vital to proposed management programs for coral specie/population
conservation. The maintenance of sufficient levels of genetic variation is
the main objective of genetic management because is crucial for the
maintenance of a species' evolutionary potential. Given the importance of
genetic variation for the long-term survival of coral populations, methods
and guidelines to measured genetic variation need to be developed . I would
suggest some strategies to management these populations based on the concept
of managing the effective size of a population. It was suggested that the
larger the effective size, the smaller the rate of genetic loss. In ideal
populations (i.e., populations that follow the Hardy-Weinberg model) the
effective size equals the population size. However, due to the high
probabilities of asexually derived colonies within Acropora populations, the
effective population (Ne) may expected to be low than the population size
(N).
For a moment I'm going to use DNA fingerprinting as proposed by Mary A.
Coffroth to estimate the contributions of sexual and asexual reproduction to
the population structure. But, how a made my sample collection is another
story and I will appreciate any recommendation. Depending on sites/reef
Acropora palmata usually form an aggregate patch separate by other discrete
patch or colonies are widely disperse along the reef. Those patch may be
expected to be compose by one or few genotypes. The method used to collect
the sample need to fit both case.
If you have any information or recommendation please send me at the
following direction:
Antonio L. Ortiz
University of Puerto Rico
Department of Marine Science
Magueyes Island
P.O. Box 408
Lajas P.R. 00667
Or by Email: alortiz9 at hotmail.com
I will appreciate your contribution.
Thanks,
Antonio
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