BEGOVIC, Emina; University of California, Berkeley: The Genetic Structure Of A Stenotopic Patellogastropod Species In Patchy Coastal Habitats

Previous study of three Aleutian Island patellogastropod species has shown that larval dispersal affects population structure more than the extrinsic factors associated with an island distribution. Here I compare those data to the stenotopic patellogastropod species, Tectura paleacea, to test the effects of restricted habitat and patchy distribution on population structure along a continuous coastline. T. paleacea is distributed throughout the northeastern Pacific and is only found on its obligate seagrass host Phyllospadix spp. Both the host and its obligate have a patchy distribution throughout their range. COI data were collected for T. paleacea populations along the Oregon-California coast. Preliminary phylogeographic patterns suggest that mode of larval dispersal alone cannot be relied upon to determine levels of gene flow between patchily distributed populations. Furthermore, these data may help identify the environmental components that regulate the phylogeographic patterns seen in nearshore marine environments. Recognition of these components may ultimately allow populations with increased susceptibility to local extirpation and/or extinction to be more readily identified by conservation biologists.