CONSERVATION OF CORALLIGENOUS REEFS: EFFECTIVE LARVAL DISPERSAL, SCALES OF CONNECTIVITY AND RESILIENCE

none3Most coastal coralligenous habitats are under threat and abundance of many species has been reduced to a level, which is critical for their persistence. Moreover, biological studies have shown that larvae of coralligenous species often disperse only over short distances. Such limited dispersal of larvae suggests that gene flow is often limited; accordingly, connectivity among coralligenous outcrops and their recovery ability are limited. Up to now only few experimental studies have investigated patterns of connectivity among populations in coralligenous reefs, despite the relevant implication of connectivity for conservation. We provide a review of population genetic studies on coralligenous species, showing that larval dispersal is often limited to few tens of meters, supporting the hypothesis of limited effective dispersal of the larvae. The occurrence of isolated breeding units and differences in genetic diversity among samples at scales of tens of meters suggest that strategies for conservation and restoration of coralligenous species and habitats should include a range a scales form the local or finer to the regional.noneABBIATI M.; COSTANTINI F.; FAUVELOT C.ABBIATI M.; COSTANTINI F.; FAUVELOT C