Processes driving and maintaining disjunct genetic populations in marine systems are poorly understood, owing to a lack of evidence of hard barriers that could have shaped patterns of extant population structure. Here, we map two genetically divergent lineages of an obligate rocky shore fish, Clinus cottoides, and model sea-level change during the last 110 000 years to provide the first evidenc...

A major goal of seafloor habitat mapping is to provide techniques that predict the distribution of species from physical and biotic parameters that define where species live. An area of seafloor comprising of rocky reef and sand habitats was surveyed with both a single beam acoustic ground discrimination system (AGDS) and sidescan sonar. Comparisons are made between predicted classes assessed f...

Burnett, L. E. . The challenges of living in hypoxic and hypercapnic aquatic environments. American Zoologist : –. De Mora, S. J., S. Demers, and M. Vernet. . The effects of UV radiation in the marine environment. London: Cambridge University Press. Denny, M. W. . Life in the maelstrom: the biomechanics of waveswept rocky shores. Trends in Ecology and Evolution : –. Kan...

The ochre seastar (Pisaster ochraceus) is a common inhabitant of rocky intertidal shores from Alaska to Baja. It is the quintessential “keystone” predator, and it has been shown to have an inordinately large influence on the diversity and structure of rocky shore communities. For this reason, it has been a focal species in the monitoring programs of the Channel Islands National Park, the Channe...

The use of hard coastal-defence structures, like breakwaters and seawalls, is rapidly increasing to prevent coastal erosion. We compared low-shore assemblages between wave-protected and wave-exposed habitats on breakwaters along a sandy shore of Tuscany (North-Western Mediterranean). Assemblages were generally characterized by a low diversity of taxa, with space monopolized by Mytilus galloprov...

Numerous studies have demonstrated population genetic structuring in marine species, yet few have investigated the effect of vertical zonation on gene flow and population structure. Here we use three sympatric, closely related clinid species, Clinus cottoides, C. superciliosus and Muraenoclinus dor salis, to test whether zonation on South African intertidal rocky shores affects phylogeographic ...

In organisms encountering predictable environments, fixed development is expected, whereas in organisms that cannot predict their future environment, phenotypic plasticity would be optimal to increase local adaptation. To test this prediction we experimentally compared phenotypic plasticity in two rocky-shore snail species; Littorina saxatilis releasing miniature snails on the shore, and Littor...