This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. The published version of this Preprint is available: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16719. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
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Abstract
Global environmental change is happening at unprecedented rates. Coral reefs are among the ecosystems most threatened by global change. For wild populations to persist, they must adapt. Knowledge shortfalls about corals’ complex ecological and evolutionary dynamics, however, stymie predictions about potential adaptation to future conditions. Here, we review adaptation through the lens of quantitative genetics. We argue that coral adaptation studies can benefit greatly from “wild” quantitative genetic methods, where traits are studied in wild populations undergoing natural selection, genomic relationship matrices can replace breeding experiments, and analyses can be extended to examine genetic constraints among traits. Individuals with advantageous genotypes for anticipated future conditions can be identified. Finally, genomic genotyping supports simultaneous consideration of how genetic diversity is arrayed across geographic and environmental distances, providing greater context for predictions of phenotypic evolution at a metapopulation scale.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.32942/X2T596
Subjects
Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Keywords
adaptation, bleaching, coral, genetic constraint, genomic relationship matrix, quantitative genetics, thermal tolerance
Dates
Published: 2023-01-17 19:21
Last Updated: 2023-04-03 18:14
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License
CC-BY Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
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Conflict of interest statement:
None
Data and Code Availability Statement:
Not applicable
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