Management strategies for coral reefs are dependant on information about the spatial …

• Abstract
• Background
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Methods
• Miscellaneous
• References
• Table 1
• Table 2
• Table 3
• Table 4
• Table 5
• Figures

Authors' contributions

LKB conceived and designed the study, collected the samples, carried out the molecular work, analysed the data and drafted the manuscript. MJC and RHC assisted with the design of the study, analysis and interpretation of results and the preparation of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript

Acknowledgements

The staff at Lizard, Orpheus and One Tree Island Research stations, the crew on MV Escape and numerous volunteers all made the field collections possible. We thank M. Kingsford for donation of Broomefield and Polmaise samples and L. van Herwerden for sequences from Sykes Reef. Financial support was provided by James Cook University (LKB and RHC), the Australian Museum (LKB), Australian Coral Reef Society (LKB), the Australian Research Council (RHC and MJC), the Hermon Slade Foundation (MJC) and the estate of W. V. Scott (MJC). MJH van Oppen provided helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. This study conformed to current Australian Law and was conducted under JCU Ethics and GBRMPA permits.