Highly Connected Populations and Temporal Stability in Allelic Frequencies of a Harvested Crab from the Southern Pacific Coast

For marine invertebrates with a benthic adult form and a planktonic larva phase, the connectivity among populations is mainly based on larval dispersal. While an extended larval phase will promote gene flow, other factors such as an intensive fishery and geographical barriers could lead to changes in genetic variability. In this study, the population genetic structure of the commercial crab Metacarcinus edwardsii was analyzed along 700 km of the Chilean coast. The analysis, based on eight microsatellite loci genotyped from megalopae and adult crabs, considered temporal and spatial patterns of genetic variation. The results showed no evidence of spatial patterns in genetic structure, suggesting high connectivity among the sampling sites. The temporal analysis showed no evidence of changes in allele frequencies and no evidence of a recent bottleneck. The lack of spatial structure and allele variation over time could be explained by the interaction of factors such as i) low reproductive variance due to the capability of females to store sperm in the seminal receptacle, which can be used for successive broods, ii) high larval dispersal and iii) high individual reproductive output. Using our data as priors, a genetic modelling approach coincided, predicting this temporal and spatial stability. The same analysis showed that a reduction in population size leads to the loss of genetic variability in populations, as well as of the genetic cohesiveness between populations, pointing out the importance management for species under exploitation, such as M. edwardsii.