Mitochondrial diversity in the ribbed mussel, Geukensia demissa, relative to high marsh plant diversity at the southern edge of the distribution

Abstract

Genomic diversity and relatedness among sample sites are often used to explore landscape-level processes of how and where organisms are limited in movement. In many cases, these patterns of diversity and relatedness can be useful for understanding larger ecological patterns. A prior study has suggested that larval input - inferred from landscape genomic data - of the ribbed mussel Geukensia demissa, a species with important roles in stabilizing salt marsh ecosystems, could be indicative of longer-term recruitment patterns of high marsh plant species. Here we use new observations of mitochondrial diversity in the same region but with more sites sampled to show that this prior study was wrong in suggesting that relationship. The same mitochondrial data are useful for monitoring cryptic patterns of climate response in these mussels relative to a subtropical congener.