RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Species ecology explains the various spatial components of genetic diversity in tropical reef fishes JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2021.01.21.427590 DO 10.1101/2021.01.21.427590 A1 Giulia Francesca Azzurra Donati A1 Niklaus Zemp A1 Stéphanie Manel A1 Maude Poirier A1 Thomas Claverie A1 Franck Ferraton A1 Théo Gaboriau A1 Rodney Govinden A1 Oskar Hagen A1 Shameel Ibrahim A1 David Mouillot A1 Julien Leblond A1 Pagu Julius A1 Laure Velez A1 Irthisham Zareer A1 Adam Ziyad A1 Fabien Leprieur A1 Camille Albouy A1 Loïc Pellissier YR 2021 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/01/21/2021.01.21.427590.abstract AB Intraspecific genetic diversity should be dependent on species ecology, but the influence of ecological traits on interspecific differences in genetic variation is yet to be explored. Generating sequenced data for 20 tropical reef fish species of the Western Indian Ocean, we investigate how species ecology influences genetic diversity patterns from local to regional scales. We distinguish between the α, β and γ components of genetic diversity, which we subsequently link to six ecological traits. In contrast to what is expected by the neutral theory of molecular evolution, we find that the α and γ components of genetic diversity are negatively associated with species abundance, which can be explained by larger variance in reproductive success in large populations and/or higher introgression in less frequent species. Pelagic larval duration, an important dispersal trait in marine fishes, is found to be negatively related to genetic β diversity, as expected by theory. We conclude that the neutral theory of molecular evolution may not be sufficient to explain genetic diversity in tropical reef fishes and that additional processes influence those relationships.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.