Coral garden conservation and restoration: how host taxon and maintenance affect the microbiome of soft and hard corals.

Temperate coral gardens are dense coral formations, which support rich marine species diversity, enabling benthic-pelagic coupling. Over the past decades, coral gardens have been increasingly threatened by bottom fishing, oil and gas exploitation, and climate change. Microbiome research bears great potential for assisted resilience in targeted conservation and restoration approaches.

Global intraspecific diversity of marine forests of brown macroalgae predicted by past climate conditions.

Global patterns of intraspecific genetic diversity are key to understanding evolutionary and ecological processes. However, insights into the distribution and drivers of genetic diversity remain limited, particularly for marine species. Here, we explain and predict the genetic diversity of cold and temperate brown macroalgae using genetic data from 29 species and a machine-learning algorithm that incorporates contemporary and past climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum (~20,000 years ago) based on the niche centroid hypothesis.

Coastal oceanographic connectivity at the global scale: a dataset of pairwise probabilities and travel times derived from biophysical modeling.

Ocean currents are fundamental drivers of marine biodiversity distribution, mediating the exchange of genetic material and individuals between populations. Their effect ranges from creating barriers that foster isolation to facilitating long-distance dispersal, which is crucial for species expansion and resilience in the face of climate change. Despite the significance of oceanographic connectivity, comprehensive global estimates remain elusive, hindering our understanding of species' dispersal ecology and limiting the development of effective conservation strategies.

Cryptic diversity in southern African kelp.

The southern coast of Africa is one of the few places in the world where water temperatures are predicted to cool in the future. This endemism-rich coastline is home to two sister species of kelps of the genus Ecklonia maxima and Ecklonia radiata, each associated with specific thermal niches, and occuring primarily on opposite sides of the southern tip of Africa. Historical distribution records indicate that E.

Range map data of marine ecosystem structuring species under global climate change.

Data on contemporary and future geographical distributions of marine species are crucial for guiding conservation and management policies in face of climate change. However, available distributional patterns have overlooked key ecosystem structuring species, despite their numerous ecological and socioeconomic services. Future range estimates are mostly available for few species at regional scales, and often rely on the outdated Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios of climate change, hindering global biodiversity estimates within the framework of current international climate policies.

Past climate-driven range shifts structuring intraspecific biodiversity levels of the giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) at global scales.

The paradigm of past climate-driven range shifts structuring the distribution of marine intraspecific biodiversity lacks replication in biological models exposed to comparable limiting conditions in independent regions. This may lead to confounding effects unlinked to climate drivers. We aim to fill in this gap by asking whether the global distribution of intraspecific biodiversity of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is explained by past climate changes occurring across the two hemispheres.

A dataset of cold-water coral distribution records.

Species distribution data are key for monitoring present and future biodiversity patterns and informing conservation and management strategies. Large biodiversity information facilities often contain spatial and taxonomic errors that reduce the quality of the provided data. Moreover, datasets are frequently shared in varying formats, inhibiting proper integration and interoperability.

Long range gene flow beyond predictions from oceanographic transport in a tropical marine foundation species.

The transport of passively dispersed organisms across tropical margins remains poorly understood. Hypotheses of oceanographic transportation potential lack testing with large scale empirical data. To address this gap, we used the seagrass species, Halodule wrightii, which is unique in spanning the entire tropical Atlantic.

Oceanographic connectivity explains the intra-specific diversity of mangrove forests at global scales.

The distribution of mangrove intra-specific biodiversity can be structured by historical demographic processes that enhance or limit effective population sizes. Oceanographic connectivity (OC) may further structure intra-specific biodiversity by preserving or diluting the genetic signatures of historical changes. Despite its relevance for biogeography and evolution, the role of oceanographic connectivity in structuring the distribution of mangrove's genetic diversity has not been addressed at global scale.

Not out of the Mediterranean: Atlantic populations of the gorgonian are a separate sister species under further lineage diversification.

The accurate delimitation of species boundaries in nonbilaterian marine taxa is notoriously difficult, with consequences for many studies in ecology and evolution. Anthozoans are a diverse group of key structural organisms worldwide, but the lack of reliable morphological characters and informative genetic markers hampers our ability to understand species diversification. We investigated population differentiation and species limits in Atlantic (Iberian Peninsula) and Mediterranean lineages of the octocoral genus previously identified as .

Complete mitochondrial genome of the branching octocoral (Johnson, 1861), phylogenetic relationships and divergence analysis.

The Gray's sea fan, (Johnson, 1861), typically inhabits deep littoral and circalittoral habitats of the eastern temperate and tropical Atlantic Ocean. Along the Iberian Peninsula, where is a dominant constituent of circalittoral coral gardens, two segregating lineages (yellow and purple morphotypes) were recently identified using single-copy nuclear orthologues. The mitochondrial genomes of 9  individuals covering both color morphotypes were assembled from RNA-seq data, using samples collected at three sites in southern (Sagres and Tavira) and western (Cape Espichel) Portugal.

Red, Gold and Green: Microbial Contribution of Rhodophyta and Other Algae to Green Turtle () Gut Microbiome.

The fitness of the endangered green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) may be strongly affected by its gut microbiome, as microbes play important roles in host nutrition and health. This study aimed at establishing environmental microbial baselines that can be used to assess turtle health under altered future conditions. We characterized the microbiome associated with the gastrointestinal tract of green turtles from Guinea Bissau in different life stages and associated with their food items, using 16S rRNA metabarcoding.

Biogeographic Population Structure of Chimeric Blades of in the Northeast Atlantic Reveals Southern Rich Gene Pools, Introgression and Cryptic Plasticity.

The genus (Bangiaceae, Rhodophyta), an important seaweed grown in aquaculture, is the most genetically diverse group of the Class Bangiophyceae, but has poorly understood genetic variability linked to complex evolutionary processes. Genetic studies in the last decades have largely focused on resolving gene phylogenies; however, there is little information on historical population biogeography, structure and gene flow in the Bangiaceae, probably due to their cryptic nature, chimerism and polyploidy, which render analyses challenging. This study aims to understand biogeographic population structure in the two abundant species in the Northeast Atlantic: (a dioecious annual) and (protandrous hermaphroditic winter annual), occupying distinct niches (seasonality and position on the shore).

Characterization and Comparison of Bacterial Communities of an Invasive and Two Native Caribbean Seagrass Species Sheds Light on the Possible Influence of the Microbiome on Invasive Mechanisms.

Invasive plants, including marine macrophytes, are one of the most important threats to biodiversity by displacing native species and organisms depending on them. Invasion success is dependent on interactions among living organisms, but their study has been mostly limited to negative interactions while positive interactions are mostly underlooked. Recent studies suggested that microorganisms associated with eukaryotic hosts may play a determinant role in the invasion process.

Climate-induced range shifts shaped the present and threaten the future genetic variability of a marine brown alga in the Northwest Pacific.

Glaciation-induced environmental changes during the last glacial maximum (LGM) have strongly influenced species' distributions and genetic diversity patterns in the northern high latitudes. However, these effects have seldom been assessed on sessile species in the Northwest Pacific. Herein, we chose the brown alga to test this hypothesis, by comparing present population genetic variability with inferred geographical range shifts from the LGM to the present, estimated with species distribution modelling (SDM).

Charting a course for genetic diversity in the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

The health of the world's oceans is intrinsically linked to the biodiversity of the ecosystems they sustain. The importance of protecting and maintaining ocean biodiversity has been affirmed through the setting of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 to conserve and sustainably use the ocean for society's continuing needs. The decade beginning 2021-2030 has additionally been declared as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

The microbiome of the habitat-forming brown alga Fucus vesiculosus (Phaeophyceae) has similar cross-Atlantic structure that reflects past and present drivers.

Latitudinal diversity gradients have provided many insights into species differentiation and community processes. In the well-studied intertidal zone, however, little is known about latitudinal diversity in microbiomes associated with habitat-forming hosts. We investigated microbiomes of Fucus vesiculosus because of deep understanding of this model system and its latitudinally large, cross-Atlantic range.

Mates Matter: Gametophyte Kinship Recognition and Inbreeding in the Giant Kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera (Laminariales, Phaeophyceae).

Inbreeding, the mating between genetically related individuals, often results in reduced survival and fecundity of offspring, relative to outcrossing. Yet, high inbreeding rates are commonly observed in seaweeds, suggesting compensatory reproductive traits may affect the costs and benefits of the mating system. We experimentally manipulated inbreeding levels in controlled crossing experiments, using gametophytes from 19 populations of Macrocystis pyrifera along its Eastern Pacific coastal distribution (EPC).

Microbiome dynamics in the tissue and mucus of acroporid corals differ in relation to host and environmental parameters.

Corals are associated with diverse microbial assemblages; however, the spatial-temporal dynamics of intra-species microbial interactions are poorly understood. The coral-associated microbial community varies substantially between tissue and mucus microhabitats; however, the factors controlling the occurrence, abundance, and distribution of microbial taxa over time have rarely been explored for different coral compartments simultaneously. Here, we test (1) differentiation in microbiome diversity and composition between coral compartments (surface mucus and tissue) of two hosts ( and ) common along inshore reefs of the Great Barrier Reef, as well as (2) the potential linkage between shifts in individual coral microbiome families and underlying host and environmental parameters.