Stability of genetic diversity in an intertidal goby population after exposure to tsunami disturbance |
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Authors: | Shotaro Hirase Minoru Ikeda Shun Hayasaka Wataru Iwasaki Akihiro Kijima |
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Institution: | 1. Genetic Research Section, Center for Earth Surface System Dynamics, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan;2. Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo‐ku, Tokyo, Japan;3. Integrative Aquatic Biology, Onagawa Field Center, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku University, Oshika, Miyagi, Japan;4. Department of Computational Biology, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan |
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Abstract: | Massive tsunami disturbances have potentially detrimental effects on genetic diversity and effective population size of coastal marine species, and evaluating these effects can be useful for devising conservation strategies for coastal marine environments. Local populations of the intertidal goby Chaenogobius annularis, which are distributed on scattered rocky beaches of the Japanese Archipelago, show demographic independence without overlapping generations, making this an ideal species with which to study the effects of tsunami disturbance on genetic diversity. Some of these populations were affected by the tsunami of the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake. Here, we investigated the change in genetic diversity of a local population of this species, which was located close to the epicenter of the earthquake, across the cohorts before and after the tsunami and evaluated the impact of the tsunami disturbance. Genetic diversity was maintained after the tsunami, and no change in the effective population size was observed. Our results suggest that the tsunami disturbance has had no marked impact on the genetic diversity of C. annularis. |
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Keywords: | Chaenogobius annularis
effective population size genetic diversity Tohoku earthquake tsunami disturbance |
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