Florentine Riquet1, François Mahe1, Frédérique Viard2, Nicolas Bierne2
1 Ifremer, France - 2CNRS, France
The marine environment is inherently a patchwork of diverse habitats (e.g., sandbanks, rocky shores, estuaries) that structure the connectivity of marine populations. Increasing coastal and offshore artificial structures—dykes, buoys, platforms, ports, wrecks, and wind farms—are reshaping this seascape: these structures provide novel substrates for the recruitment and colonization of marine species, modifying natural connectivity patterns and acting as stepping-stones for individuals, populations, or lineages previously isolated. Indeed, these structures influence genetic diversity, particularly by facilitating hybridization among individuals from divergent populations or even lineages. The rapid development of offshore wind farms along the French coastline may alter the connectivity of the Mytilus species complex, particularly Mytilus edulis and M. galloprovincialis, which coexist and hybridize along the French Atlantic coastline. Recent anthropogenic admixture between M. edulis and the Mediterranean lineage of M. galloprovincialis has produced a new ecotype, the “dock mussel,” observed exclusively in ports along the North Sea and Atlantic coasts. In the present study, we aimed to examine whether dock mussels colonize offshore wind turbines, driven by maritime traffic between ports and turbines. Mussels were sampled from wind turbines (Banc de Guérande and Le Croisic), ports, and natural populations, genotyped using ca. 20,000 SNPs used to identify population origins and assess genetic connectivity. Genetic differentiation and diversity indices will indeed determine the role of wind farms in shaping connectivity networks.
Biography
Florentine Riquet’s research focuses on the ecological and evolutionary processes that shape the genetic diversity and genetic structure of natural populations in marine species. She uses concepts and analysis methods from population genetics and high-throughput sequencing technologies to address key issues in marine conservation and commercial species management, emphasizing biodiversity of marine organisms.