Fig 1.
CNSW (Central New South Wales, red dots) with Sydney N = 13 and Botany Bay N = 19, Wollongong N = 1, Jervis Bay N = 4, Guerilla Bay N = 3; SNSW (Southern New South Wales, yellow dot) with Eden N = 8; VIC (Victoria, Mornington Peninsula, light blue dots) with Flinders Pier N = 10, Portsea N = 5; and TAS (Tasmania, dark blue dots) with Bicheno N = 7 and Hobart N = 2. Photos are of adult specimens of the weedy seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus from three of the sample sites (with photo credit given).
Fig 2.
Morphological measurements taken for adult weedy seadragons Phyllopteryx taeniolatus.
Measurements were modified from Forsgren & Lowe [51]. Point to point distance measures are: A-B: snout tip-snout end; B-C: snout end-eye ridge; C-D: eye ridge-base head; D-E: base head-posterior head; E-F: posterior head-base nape; F-G: base nape-nape, G-H: nape-base dorsal; H-I: base dorsal-anterior fin; I-J: anterior fin-posterior fin; J-K: posterior fin-base 1 tail; K-L: base 1 tail-base 2 tail; L-M: base 2 tail-end of tail; BD1: Body depth; BD2: Body depth; 3: Split between body and tail.
Table 1.
Pairwise FST values between populations of P. taeniolatus.
Table 2.
Genetic diversity indices for P. taeniolatus.
Fig 3.
STRUCTURE results for P. taeniolatus from southeast Australia.
Result from the Bayesian clustering algorithms of STRUCTURE v.2.3.4 [45]. Results for K 2–5 are shown. Individuals from Wollongong (N = 1) and Hobart (N = 2) were included in these analyses. The most likely K was four and represent the four distinct populations: central New South Wales (CNSW), southern New South Wales (SNSW), Tasmania (TAS), and Victoria (VIC). Numbers below K = 4 are individual seadragon sample IDs (see S1 Table, under Field ID).
Fig 4.
DAPC result for P. taeniolatus. Discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) calculated using the R package ADEGENET v.2.2.1 [49].
Individuals from Wollongong (N = 1) and Hobart (N = 2) were included in these analyses. The results support four separate genetic clusters representing central New South Wales (CNSW), southern New South Wales (SNSW), Victoria (VIC) and Tasmania (TAS).
Fig 5.
Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of morphological measurements.
(A) LDA biplot of Function 1 vs Function 2 with centroids indicated, and (B) PCA biplot of PC1 vs PC2, loadings of each seadragon specimen using the suite of external metrics from Fig 2. Eigenvalues are indicated for PCA, prominent eigenvalues are total length (O), measure of tail (K) and two body depth (L, M). Symbols: Brown triangles NSW, blue circles VIC, and black squares TAS specimens. Centroids of LDA are indicated for each group are open using same shape and colour.