Larval spatial distributions and other early life-history characteristics predict genetic differentiation in eastern Pacific blennioid fishes

In marine organisms, a pelagic larval stage increases the opportunities for long-distance dispersal and is often associated with little genetic differ entiation over large geographical distances. Here we test the hypothesis th at early life-history characteristics, including larval spatial distributio ns, affect the rates of dispersal and, therefore, the levels of genetic par titioning among three Gulf of California reef fishes: Axoclinus nigricaudus , Malacoctenus hubbsi and Ophioblennius steindachneri. These three blennioi d fishes have markedly different early life histories: A. nigricaudus has a short larval duration 18 days) and develops inshore, M. hubbsi has an inte rmediate larval duration (24 days) and most individuals develop inshore and O. steindachneri has a long larval life (50 days) and disperses offshore. Estimates of genetic partitioning from mDNA control region sequences differ ed greatly between these species and were in the same rank order as predict ed by their early life-history characteristics A. nigricaudus N-ST = 0.536, M. hubbsi N-ST A'ST = 0.261 and O. steindachneri N-ST = 0.000). These resu lts indicate that larval strategies may be good predictors of population ge netic structure in some marine fishes.