Data from: Unexpected collective larval dispersal but little support for sweepstakes reproductive success in the highly dispersive brooding mollusk Crepidula fornicata

In many marine invertebrates, long-distance dispersal is achieved during an extended pelagic larval phase. Although such dispersal should result in high gene flow over broad spatial scales, fine-scale genetic structure has often been reported, a pattern attributed to interfamilial variance in reproductive success and limited homogenization during dispersal. To examine this hypothesis, the genetic diversity of dispersing larvae must be compared with the post-dispersal stages, i.e. benthic recruits and adults. Such data remain however scarce due to the difficulty to sample and analyze larvae of minute size. Here we carried out such an investigation using the marine gastropod Crepidula fornicata. Field sampling of three to four larval pools was conducted over the reproductive season and repeated over three years. The genetic composition of larval pools, obtained with 16 microsatellite loci, was compared with that of recruits and adults sampled from the same site and years. Conversely to samples of juveniles and adults, large genetic temporal variations between larval pools produced at different times of the same reproductive season were observed. In addition, full- and half-sibs were detected in early larvae and post-dispersal juveniles, pointing to correlated dispersal paths between several pairs of individuals. Inbred larvae were also identified. Such collective larval dispersal was unexpected given the long larval duration of the study species. Our results suggest that each larval pool is produced by a small effective number of reproducers but that, over a reproductive season, the whole larval pool is produced by large numbers of reproducers across space and time