Population genomics highlight the vulnerability of coral-dwelling gobies to ecological losses due to climatic disturbances

Abstract

Predicting species resilience to climate change generally focuses on species life history and ecology, overlooking genomic changes following disturbances. After consecutive cyclones and heatwaves, coral-dwelling Gobiodon gobies have experienced extreme population and group size reductions, and slower recovery rates than their coral hosts. To assess genomic contributions to this vulnerability, we analyzed multiple Gobiodon species for population structure (1) among three locations in western Oceania and (2) pre- and post-disturbances at the central location that underwent the same cyclones and heatwaves that reduced populations and group sizes. Species compared among locations all exhibited population structure. Post-disturbances, two species (G. fuscoruber, G. rivulatus) were extirpated, two species (G. histrio, G. quinquestrigatus) exhibited genetic bottlenecks, one species had no change to genetic diversity (G. brochus), and another species had consistently low diversity (G. erythrospilus). Our results highlight that coral-dwelling gobies face compounding ecological and genomic losses from climatic disturbances, warranting targeted conservation.