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Local habitat distribution determines the relative frequency and interbreeding potential for two Caribbean coral morphospecies

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Abstract

We investigate the relationship between habitat heterogeneity and morphological variation in the Caribbean coral species-complex, Madracis pharensis/decactis. This complex showed strong but incomplete morphospecies habitat-matching on a small spatial scale. We find that only one Madracis morphospecies dominates in environments consisting of either few vertical or few horizontal habitats, whereas in environments consisting of a mixture of horizontal and vertical habitats both morphospecies are common. We demonstrate that the observed patterns of morphospecies habitat-matching cannot be explained by a pure polyphenic model, where morphological variants are induced by a genotype-by-environment interaction at their settling site. Instead, we suggest that habitat-matching results in whole or in part from genetically predetermined factors. We present support for the hypothesis that this pattern of habitat-matching is due to habitat- and morphospecies-specific selective factors. Our study describes how a variable environmental factor, i.e. habitat distribution, has a non-linear effect on the spatial distribution of these morphospecies, thereby influencing the genetic organization of the Madracis coral complex at the ~+1–10 km spatial scale.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the following people for assistance in the field: S. “Henano’’ Hamilton, Bryce Anderson, N. Johansen, E. Sampayo, A. Engelen, A. “Wrasse’’ Rassweiler and S. Gladding. The Carmabi Foundation provided logistical support. J. Dushoff, J. Regetz, M. Hellberg, M. van Oppen, R. Bak, L. Spinney, J. Wilder and I. Baums are thanked for their assistance during various stages of this project. Comments by M. Dijksman and two anonymous reviewers greatly helped us to improve an earlier version of our ms. We are grateful to the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) for financial support to MJAV. This is Dweezendputen contribution 1-A.

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Author notes

  1. Stuart A. Sandin

    Present address: Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0202, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 3190 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Mark J. A. Vermeij

  2. CARMABI, Piscaderabaai z/n, Willemstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles

    Mark J. A. Vermeij

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

    Stuart A. Sandin

  4. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 621 Charles E. Young Drive South, P.O. Box 951606, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1606, USA

    Jameal F. Samhouri

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  1. Mark J. A. Vermeij
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  3. Jameal F. Samhouri
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Correspondence to Mark J. A. Vermeij.

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The order of authors was determined by a swim competition around the island of Klein Curaçao on June 20, 2001

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Vermeij, M.J.A., Sandin, S.A. & Samhouri, J.F. Local habitat distribution determines the relative frequency and interbreeding potential for two Caribbean coral morphospecies. Evol Ecol 21, 27–47 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-006-9122-z

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