RESEARCH ARTICLE Clipperton Atoll as a model to study small marine populations: Endemism and the genomic consequences of small population size Nicole L. Crane1, Juliette Tariel2, Jennifer E. Caselle3, Alan M. Friedlander4,5, D. Ross Robertson6, Giacomo Bernardi2* a1111111111 1 Department of Biology, Cabrillo College, Aptos, CA, United States of America, 2 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, United States of a1111111111 America, 3 Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, United a1111111111 States of America, 4 Pristine Seas, National Geographic Society, Washington, DC, United States of America, a1111111111 5 Fisheries Ecology Research Lab, Department of Biology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, United States a1111111111 of America, 6 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama *
[email protected] OPEN ACCESS Abstract Citation: Crane NL, Tariel J, Caselle JE, Friedlander AM, Robertson DR, Bernardi G (2018) Clipperton Estimating population sizes and genetic diversity are key factors to understand and predict Atoll as a model to study small marine populations: population dynamics. Marine species have been a difficult challenge in that respect, due to Endemism and the genomic consequences of the difficulty in assessing population sizes and the open nature of such populations. Small, small population size. PLoS ONE 13(6): e0198901. isolated islands with endemic species offer an opportunity to groundtruth population size https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0198901 estimates with empirical data and investigate the genetic consequences of such small popu- Editor: Heather M. Patterson, Department of lations. Here we focus on two endemic species of reef fish, the Clipperton damselfish, Ste- Agriculture and Water Resources, AUSTRALIA gastes baldwini, and the Clipperton angelfish, Holacanthus limbaughi, on Clipperton Atoll, Received: January 25, 2018 tropical eastern Pacific.