Martin H. van der Meer

James Cook University · School of Marine & Tropical Biology

Endemic marine species often exist as metapopulations distributed across several discrete locations, such that their extinction risk is dependent upon population dynamics and persistence at each location. The anemonefish Amphiprion latezonatus is a habitat specialist, endemic to two oceanic islands (Lord Howe and Norfolk) and the adjacent eastern A...

Globally, marine species are under increasing pressure from human activities, including ocean warming, acidification, pollution, and overfishing. Species most vulnerable to these pressures tend to be ecological specialists that have low abundance and small distribution ranges (endemics). Marine endemics often exist as meta-populations distributed a...

Extensive ongoing degradation of coral reef habitats worldwide has lead to declines in abundance of coral reef fishes and local extinction of some species. Those most vulnerable are ecological specialists and endemic species. Determining connectivity between locations is vital to understanding recovery and long-term persistence of these species fol...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly being advocated and implemented to protect biodiversity on coral reefs. Networks of appropriately sized and spaced reserves can capture a high proportion of species diversity, with gene flow among reserves presumed to promote long term resilience of populations to spatially variable threats. However, n...

Pairwise population Fst values for four populations of Amphiprion mccullochi using both d loop (mtDNA) and microsatellite (msat). Pairwise population structures (Fst) for four populations of A. mccullochi, using both d loop (mtDNA) and microsatellite (msat) loci showing raw and corrected Fst for null allele frequencies. (DOC)

AMOVA fixation indices (Φst) for Amphiprion mccullochi across all populations surveyed. (DOC)

Summary statistics for 17 microsatellite loci Am1–24. (DOC)

AMOVA analysis for a) mtDNA sequences from Amphiprion mccullochi structured into geographic regions and b) global AMOVA weighted across all seventeen microsatellite loci. (DOC)

Sample sizes for D loop (total n = 105). (DOC)

Coral reef habitats are increasingly under threat from global warming and this has influenced the associated reef fish communities. Chaetodon tricinctus is a butterflyfish endemic to the offshore reefs of Elizabeth Reef, Middleton Reef, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island off Australia’s east coast. It is a highly specialised coral reef fish that i...

Sandveld lizards (genus Nucras) are widespread in southern Africa, but are generally secretive and poorly known. We examined 385 preserved specimens from five species of Nucras collected over a broad time span (104 years) and a geographic area covering most of South Africa and Swaziland. We had three main objectives: to test for sexual size dimorph...