{"id":689,"date":"2025-11-15T09:50:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T08:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/?p=689"},"modified":"2025-11-15T09:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T08:50:15","slug":"new-paper-on-clownfish-resilience-to-past-environmental-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/2025\/11\/new-paper-on-clownfish-resilience-to-past-environmental-change\/","title":{"rendered":"New paper on clownfish resilience to past environmental change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Paper by Garcia Jimenez et al entitled &#8220;Habitat specialisation impacts clownfish demographic resilience to pleistocene sea-level fluctuations&#8221; published in <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/mec.70134\">Molecular Ecology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Study Overview:<\/strong><br>Researchers analyzed whole-genome data from\u00a0382 individuals across 10 clownfish species\u00a0to understand how\u00a0host specialisation\u00a0influenced demographic responses to\u00a0Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations, which repeatedly fragmented coral reef habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Generalist species\u00a0(those associating with multiple sea anemone hosts) maintained\u00a0stable population sizes and connectivity\u00a0during habitat fragmentation, showing resilience to environmental instability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Specialist species, dependent on specific hosts, experienced\u00a0severe population declines and strong genetic structuring, with little evidence of recovery after habitats reconnected.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Geographic patterns:\u00a0The\u00a0Indonesian Through-Flow\u00a0acted as a major dispersal corridor, while continental shelves and open ocean regions were barriers to gene flow. The\u00a0Coral Triangle\u00a0emerged as a critical hub of genetic diversity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/cms\/asset\/0e43d807-13e9-4afe-b3cc-0b6bbe907eda\/mec70134-fig-0003-m.jpg\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:712px;height:auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Spatial patterns of population connectivity fro the 8 clownfish species used. Maps show the clownfish clade distribution range with colour shades indicating the posterior probability of a location having higher (blue) or lower (red) migration than expected under Isolation-by-distance (IBD). Taken from Figure 3 of Garcia Jimenez et al (2025) Mol Ecol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Implications:<\/strong><br>This study highlights how ecological dependencies shape species\u2019 vulnerability to environmental change. Incorporating\u00a0host specialisation\u00a0into conservation strategies is essential for predicting resilience under future habitat disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Citation:<\/strong><br>Garc\u00eda-Jim\u00e9nez A., Talbi M., Fitzgerald L.M., et al. (2025).&nbsp;<em>Habitat Specialisation Impacts Clownfish Demographic Resilience to Pleistocene Sea-Level Fluctuations<\/em>. Molecular Ecology. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/mec.70134<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paper by Garcia Jimenez et al entitled &#8220;Habitat specialisation impacts clownfish demographic resilience to pleistocene sea-level fluctuations&#8221; published in Molecular Ecology. Study Overview:Researchers analyzed whole-genome data from\u00a0382 individuals across 10 clownfish species\u00a0to understand how\u00a0host specialisation\u00a0influenced demographic responses to\u00a0Pleistocene sea-level fluctuations,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,11],"class_list":{"0":"post-689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"tag-clownfish","8":"tag-genomics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":692,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/phylo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}