47. Marine and coastal plant phylogeography and bioregionalization

Organised by Fred Gurgel, University of Adelaide. First meeting was held 23-27 June 2008 at Macquarie U Second meeting to be held 21-25 September 2009 at Macquarie U

PARTICIPANTS AT FIRST MEETING Frederico Gurgel - U Adelaide Sean Connell - U Adelaide Gerry Kraft - U Melbourne Mads Thomsen - Edith Cowan U Jonathan Waters - U Otago (NZ) Thomas Wernberg - Edith Cowan U John A West - U Melbourne (Giuseppe) Joe Zuccarello - U Wellington (NZ) Craig Sanderson - U Tasmania PARTICIPANTS AT SECOND MEETING Frederico Gurgel - U Adelaide Sean Connell - U Adelaide Mads Thomsen - Edith Cowan U Jonathan Waters - U Otago (NZ) Thomas Wernberg - Edith Cowan U Paul Adam - U NSW Doug Fotheringham - SA Dept Environment and Heritage

Jun 08 > Sep 09 >

BACKGROUND

Marine biologists have long recognized drastic shifts in floristic composition along coastlines but little is known about the evolutionary and ecological factors underpinning these changes. Regions where such shifts occur are often documented as distributional range limit for taxa at and above the species level. However only recently these regions have been tested regarding their influence below the species level (e.g. population genetics and phylogeography data).

In our first meeting, ours aims turned into synthesizing marine temperate macroalgal biogeographic data across different levels of biological organization in order to produce a more holistic understanding of macroalgal biogeography, community structure and evolution (Australian and New Zealand temperate macroalgal flora). Statistical analyses of distributional and biodiversity data were performed. Patterns were revealed and compared to those observed for other marine organisms. Three manuscripts were drafted and will be submitted shortly.

APPROACH

Our analyses are framed in historic and contemporary bioregionalization proposals. As a tool for organizing spatial information, regionalizations are important not only for education, science and environmental inventories but also inescapably serve as the basis for marine conservation programs. For example, in Australia, guidelines for developing the National Representative System of Marine Protected Areas are based on the Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalization of Australia (IMCRA).

FUTURE RESEARCH

Future meetings will address the following questions: What are the current and past major marine barriers to gene flow along the Australian and NZ temperate coast? Which organization scales do they occur? What is the extent of genetic connectivity among existing marine reserves for plant species? What are the ecological, geological and oceanographic features shaping population and community structure along the Australian and NZ coasts? Do plants share common phylogeographic and biogeographic patterns with other marine organisms? How do differences in life cycle, phenology and dispersal capabilities influence population and community structuring in marine and coastal plants?

The working group will expand its focus to include temperate and tropical ecosystems, and not only macroalgae but also seagrasses, mangroves, saltmarshes and littoral vegetation. New datasets are being built for this purpose.

Last updated August 2009