Recovery and genetic diversity of the intertidal kelp Lessonia nigrescens (Phaeophyceae) 20 years after El Nino 1982/83

Martinez, EA; Cárdenas L.; Pinto, R

Abstract

Massive mortality in kelp beds of the Pacific coasts of North and South America was caused by the rise in surface seawater temperature during the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event of 1982/83, the strongest in the four and half previous centuries. In northern Chile a stretch of 600 km of coastline showed massive mortality of the intertidal kelp species Lessonia nigrescens Bory, of which only a few individuals managed to survive. Kelps and their associated biodiversity recovered but kelp beds recolonization in general was variable in time and space seemingly very slow along northern Chilean coasts. Here we show, effectively, that northward recolonization advanced less than 60 km in 20 years. Conversely, kelp beds of the Northern Hemisphere recovered 300 km in only six months after the same ENSO event. Genetic diversity in the two most affected populations of L. nigrescens shows half of the heterozygosity and polymorphism with respect to that observed in six non affected populations. In addition, geographically separated populations seem highly isolated as evidenced by high and significant fixation indices (all FST values over 0.4).

Más información

Título según WOS: Recovery and genetic diversity of the intertidal kelp Lessonia nigrescens (Phaeophyceae) 20 years after El Nino 1982/83
Título según SCOPUS: Recovery and genetic diversity of the intertidal kelp Lessonia nigrescens (Phaeophyceae) 20 years after El Niño 1982/83
Título de la Revista: JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY
Volumen: 39
Número: 3
Editorial: Wiley
Fecha de publicación: 2003
Página de inicio: 504
Página final: 508
Idioma: English
URL: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1046/j.1529-8817.2003.02191.x
DOI:

10.1046/j.1529-8817.2003.02191.x

Notas: ISI, SCOPUS