Journal article
Contrasting Reproductive and Early Life-History Strategies in Recently Diverged Octocoral Species (Paramuricea spp.)
Ecology and evolution, Vol.16(4), pp.1-24
04/2026
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Abstract
Species delimitation is central to understanding biodiversity and its conservation, yet genetic divergence among sister lineages is often insufficient to demonstrate reproductive isolation or to resolve speciation unambiguously. This limitation is especially pronounced in marine invertebrates such as corals. Their slowly evolving genomes, cryptic diversity, and complex reproductive traits can obscure species boundaries. These challenges also characterize the Paramuricea-species complex occurring in the Iberian-Atlantic, whose members, including those studied here, commonly dominate deep coral forests. Within this complex, sympatrically occurring yellow and purple morphs exhibit little mitochondrial differentiation, despite evidence of partial genetic structuring. By characterizing gametogenesis, spawning time, and early life-history stages, we reveal pronounced prezygotic barriers between the yellow (broadcast spawning) and purple (surface-brooding) morphs, including consistent multi-year temporal separation and strongly contrasting fertilization environments. These differences extend into embryonic development, larval morphology, behavior, and settlement dynamics and reflect divergent dispersal strategies. Overall, our results provide direct biological evidence that the two morphs represent independent evolutionary lineages, supporting their recognition as distinct species. This model system represents a contemporary example of ecological speciation and may serve as a powerful model for future research on the genetic coupling between reproductive modes and life-history traits.
Details
- Title
- Contrasting Reproductive and Early Life-History Strategies in Recently Diverged Octocoral Species (Paramuricea spp.)
- Creators
- Christina Egger - Bavarian State Collection of ZoologyAschwin H. Engelen - Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity FoundationRoland R. Melzer - Bavarian State Collection of ZoologyMarcellina Rola - Bergische Universitat Wuppertal (Germany)Catarina Melo - Universidade Do Algarve (Portugal)Chiara Favaretto - University of PaduaManuela Quiroga-perez - Natural History Museum ViennaSheena Suet-wah Chung - Southern Cross UniversityLorenzo Bramanti - Sorbonne UniversitéEster A. Serrao - Universidade Do Algarve (Portugal)Marcio A. G. Coelho - Universidade Do Algarve (Portugal)
- Publication Details
- Ecology and evolution, Vol.16(4), pp.1-24
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 24
- Grant note
- Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b- on). This study received Portuguese national funds from FCT—Foundation for Science andTechnology through contracts UID/04326/2025, UID/PRR/04326/2025,and LA/P/0101/2020 (DOI:10.54499/LA/P/0101/2020), Doctoral Scholarship SFRH/BD/151455/2021 to CE, CEECINST/0014/2018to AHE as well as from funds from RESTORESEAS 2020–2021Biodiversa+ and Water JPI joint call for research projects under the Bio- divRestore ERA-NET Cofund (grant agreement no. 101003777) and FCT (DivRestore/0013/2020); and CORALFORESTS (FundaçãoBelmiro de Azevedo).
- Identifiers
- 991013372620202368
- Copyright
- © 2026 The Author(s).
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article