Seagrass ecosystems have suffered significant declines globally and focus is shifting to restoration efforts. A key component to successful restoration is an understanding of the genetic factors potentially influencing restoration success. This includes understanding levels of connectivity between restoration locations and neighboring seagrass populations that promote natural recovery (source and sink populations), the identification of potential donor populations, and assessment of genetic diversity of restored meadows and material used for restoration. In this study, we carry out genetic surveys of 352 individuals from 13 populations using 11 polymorphic microsatellite loci to inform seagrass restoration activities by: (1) understanding levels of genetic and genotypic diversity within meadows; and (2) understanding genetic structure and patterns of connectivity among these meadows to determine which source sites may be most appropriate to assist recovery of three restoration sites. The study identified high genotypic diversity within the locations analyzed from the Port of Gladstone and Rodd’s Bay region, indicating sexual reproduction is important in maintaining populations. Overall, we detected significant genetic structuring among sites with the Bayesian structure analysis identifying genetic clusters that largely conformed to a northern, central, and southern region. This suggests limited gene flow between regions, although there does appear to be some connectivity within regions. The hydrodynamic models showed that seeds were largely locally retained, while fragments were more widely dispersed. Limited gene flow between regions suggests donor material for restoration should be sourced locally where possible.

中文翻译：

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亚热带海草恢复的海景遗传结构和水动力连通性评估

海草生态系统在全球范围内遭受了显着下降，重点正在转移到恢复工作上。成功修复的一个关键组成部分是了解可能影响修复成功的遗传因素。这包括了解恢复地点与促进自然恢复的邻近海草种群（源和汇种群）之间的连通性水平、潜在捐助种群的识别以及恢复草地和用于恢复的材料的遗传多样性评估。在这项研究中，我们使用 11 个多态性微卫星位点对来自 13 个种群的 352 个个体进行了遗传调查，以通过以下方式为海草恢复活动提供信息：（1）了解草地内的遗传和基因型多样性水平；(2) 了解这些草地之间的遗传结构和连通性模式，以确定哪些源点可能最适合帮助恢复三个恢复点。该研究在格拉德斯通港和罗德湾地区分析的地点内确定了高基因型多样性，表明有性生殖对于维持种群很重要。总体而言，我们通过贝叶斯结构分析在位点之间检测到显着的遗传结构，识别出很大程度上符合北部、中部和南部地区的遗传簇。这表明区域之间的基因流动有限，尽管区域内似乎确实存在一些连通性。流体动力学模型表明，种子主要在局部保留，而碎片则更广泛地分散。