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Species conservation and management benefit from precise understanding of natural patterns of dispersal and genetic variation. Using recent advances in indirect genetic methods applied to both adult plants and dispersed seeds, we find that the mean seed dispersal in a threatened marine foundation plant (the eelgrassZostera marina) is approximately 100–200 m. This distance is surprisingly more similar to that of wind‐dispersed terrestrial seeds (~10s to 100s of meters) than the passive dispersal of marine propagules via currents (~10s to 100s of kilometres). Because nearshore marine plants likeZosteraare commonly distributed across strong selective gradients driven by bathymetry (depth) even within these restricted spatial scales, seeds are capable of dispersing to novel water depths and experiencing profound shifts in light availability, temperature and wave exposure. We documented strong phenotypic variation and genome‐wide differentiation among plants separated by approximately the spatial scale of mean realised dispersal. This result suggests genetic isolation by environment in response to depth‐related environmental gradients as one plausible explanation for this pattern. The ratio of effective to census size (or Ne/Nc) approximated 0.1%, indicating that a fraction of existing plants provides the genetic variation to allow adaptation to environmental change. Our results suggest that successful conservation of seagrass meadows that can adapt to microspatial and temporal variation in environmental conditions will be low without direct and persistent intervention using large numbers of individuals or a targeted selection of genotypes.

Habitat‐forming organisms provide three‐dimensional structure that supports abundant and diverse communities. Variation in the morphological traits of habitat formers will therefore likely influence how they facilitate associated communities, either via food and habitat provisioning, or by altering predator–prey interactions. These mechanisms, however, are typically studied in isolation, and thus, we know little of how they interact to affect associated communities. In response to this, we used naturally occurring morphological variability in the algaSargassum vestitumto create habitat units of distinct morphotypes to test whether variation in the morphological traits (frond size and thallus size) ofS. vestitumor the interaction between these traits affects their value as habitat for associated communities in the presence and absence of predation. We found morphological traits did not interact, instead having independent effects on epifauna that were negligible in the absence of predation. However, when predators were present, habitat units with large fronds were found to host significantly lower epifaunal abundances than other morphotypes, suggesting that large frond alga provided low‐value refuge from predators. The presence of predators also influenced the size structure of epifaunal communities from habitat units of differing frond size, suggesting that the refuge value ofS. vestitumwas also related to epifauna body size. This suggests that habitat formers may chiefly structure associated communities by mediating size‐selective predation, and not through habitat provisioning. Furthermore, these results also highlight that habitat traits cannot be considered in isolation, for their interaction with biotic processes can have significant implications for associated communities.

Positive species interactions, including facilitation and mutualism, are important in shaping ecological communities through the amelioration of stressful conditions. Facilitation results from traits (e.g., plant growth form) that create benefits for one or more interacting partners. The outcomes of facilitation depend on positive or negative feedbacks between partners, which can determine the stability of interactions over time. We can expand our understanding of these dynamics through a bidirectional approach that identifies the specific mechanisms creating benefits for the associated species, the traits related to those benefits, and the potential for feedbacks to affect amelioration by modifying traits. We characterized an association between the salt marsh plantLimonium carolinianumand musselGeukensiasp. in the northern Gulf of Mexico. We used a field survey and three field experiments to establish the bidirectional effects of the association, the underlying mechanisms, and the relevant traits for each partner species. Mussels benefitted fromLimoniumcanopies, which ameliorated high temperatures and predation for mussels, increasing survival and recruitment. These positive effects were particularly evident under larger canopies. Mussels enriched sediment organic matter and thus over time are expected to alleviate nutrient limitation forLimonium.Changes in functional traits of both species contributed to facilitation.Limoniumboth benefitted from and promoted higher mussel density, and mussels both allowedLimoniumto grow or retain more leaves and benefitted from stress amelioration under larger canopies. The benefits of the association appear asymmetrical: mussels consistently benefitted in both experiments, but we found only modest positive effects onLimonium, and only over the longer term. These differences likely reflect variation in the seasonality and/or timescale of the facilitative mechanisms. The bidirectional and mechanistic design of our study revealed positive feedbacks that reinforced the traits conferring benefits to each partner, potentially stabilizing this positive interaction. Understanding how feedbacks influence the outcomes of facilitation is increasingly important as anthropogenic stressors increase globally.

Plant genotypic diversity can influence population‐ and community‐level processes, yet we have limited understanding of how these effects vary across environmental gradients that are ubiquitous in nature.

Currents are unique drivers of oceanic phylogeography and thus determine the distribution of marine coastal species, along with past glaciations and sea-level changes. Here we reconstruct the worldwide colonization history of eelgrass (Zostera marinaL.), the most widely distributed marine flowering plant or seagrass from its origin in the Northwest Pacific, based on nuclear and chloroplast genomes. We identified two divergent Pacific clades with evidence for admixture along the East Pacific coast. Two west-to-east (trans-Pacific) colonization events support the key role of the North Pacific Current. Time-calibrated nuclear and chloroplast phylogenies yielded concordant estimates of the arrival ofZ. marinain the Atlantic through the Canadian Arctic, suggesting that eelgrass-based ecosystems, hotspots of biodiversity and carbon sequestration, have only been present there for ~243 ky (thousand years). Mediterranean populations were founded ~44 kya, while extant distributions along western and eastern Atlantic shores were founded at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (~19 kya), with at least one major refuge being the North Carolina region. The recent colonization and five- to sevenfold lower genomic diversity of the Atlantic compared to the Pacific populations raises concern and opportunity about how Atlantic eelgrass might respond to rapidly warming coastal oceans.

Within estuarine and coastal ecosystems globally, extensive habitat degradation and loss threaten critical ecosystem functions and necessitate widescale restoration efforts. There is abundant evidence that ecological processes and species interactions can vary with habitat characteristics, which has important implications for the design and implementation of restoration efforts aimed at enhancing specific ecosystem functions and services. We conducted an experiment examining how habitat characteristics (presence; edge vs. interior) influence the communities of resident fish and mobile invertebrates on restored oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs. Similar to previous studies, we found that restored reefs altered community composition and augmented total abundance and biomass relative to unstructured sand habitat. Community composition and biomass also differed between the edge and interior of individual reefs as a result of species‐specific patterns over small spatial scales. These patterns were only weakly linked to oyster density, suggesting that other factors that vary between edge and interior (e.g. predator access or species interactions) are likely more important for community structure on oyster reefs. Fine‐scale information on resident species' use of oyster reefs will help facilitate restoration by allowing decision makers to optimize the amount of edge versus interior habitat. To improve the prediction of faunal use and benefits from habitat restoration, we recommend investigations into the mechanisms shaping edge and interior preferences on oyster reefs.