Volume 43, Issue 4 pp. 820-832
Original Article

A bridge too far: dispersal barriers and cryptic speciation in an Arabian Peninsula grouper (Cephalopholis hemistiktos)

Mark A. Priest

Corresponding Author

Mark A. Priest

Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072 Australia

Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900 Saudi Arabia

Correspondence: Mark A. Priest, Marine Spatial Ecology Lab, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.

E-mail: [email protected]

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Joseph D. DiBattista

Joseph D. DiBattista

Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900 Saudi Arabia

Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia

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Jennifer L. McIlwain

Jennifer L. McIlwain

Department of Environment and Agriculture, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia

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Brett M. Taylor

Brett M. Taylor

College of Marine and Environmental Science, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811 Australia

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Nigel E. Hussey

Nigel E. Hussey

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, N9B 3P4 Canada

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Michael L. Berumen

Michael L. Berumen

Red Sea Research Center, Division of Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900 Saudi Arabia

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First published: 12 December 2015
Citations: 24
Editor: Michelle Gaither

Abstract

Aim

We use genetic and age-based analyses to assess the evidence for a biogeographical barrier to larval dispersal in the yellowfin hind, Cephalopholis hemistiktos, a commercially important species found across the Arabian Peninsula.

Location

Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman and Arabian Gulf.

Methods

Mitochondrial DNA cytochrome-c oxidase subunit-I and nuclear DNA (S7) sequences were obtained for C. hemistiktos sampled throughout its distributional range. Phylogeographical and population-level analyses were used to assess patterns of genetic structure and to identify barriers to dispersal. Concurrently, age-based demographic analyses using otoliths determined differences in growth and longevity between regions.

Results

Our analyses revealed significant genetic structure congruent with growth parameter differences observed across sampling sites, suggesting cryptic speciation between populations in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden versus the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Gulf. Coalescence analyses indicated these two regions have been isolated for > 800,000 years.

Main conclusions

Our results indicate historical disruption to gene flow and a contemporary dispersal barrier in the Arabian Sea, which C. hemistiktos larvae are unable to effectively traverse. This provides yet another example of a (cryptic) species with high dispersive potential whose range is delimited by a lack of suitable habitat between locations or an inability to successfully recruit at the range edge.

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