Polymetallic sulfide deposits produced at hydrothermal vent fields are targets for mining exploitation along the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge, threatening the functioning and resilience of vent ecosystems that provide multiple ecosystem services. Knowledge about connectivity between vents will inform conservation practices. The present‐day genetic structure and demographic history of the two vent‐dwelling gastropod species, Lepetodrilus...

Using Pectinaria koreni as a biological model of larval dispersal, we coupled the analysis of differently evolving genetic markers (mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I and four microsatellite loci) to hydrodynamic modeling of larval transport in the English Channel. To determine the influence of historical and contemporary processes on the genetic structure of our study populations, genetic relationships between English Channel...

The use of sequence polymorphism from individual mitochondrial genes to infer past demography has recently proved controversial because of the recurrence of selective sweeps acting over genes and the need for unlinked multilocus data sets. However, comparative analyses using several species for one gene and/or multiple genes for one species can serve as a test for potential selective effects and clarify our understanding of hi...

The brittle‐star Acrocnida brachiata (Montagu) lives in sandy‐bottom habitat of both intertidal and subtidal zones along the coasts of the northwestern Europe. An allozyme frequency‐based survey (five enzyme loci) was combined with a mitochondrial (mt) COI haplotype analysis (598‐bp sequences) on 17 populations to trace back past colonization pathways from the actual population structure of the species. Both genetic markers di...

The historic processes which have led to the present‐day patterns of genetic structure in the marine coastal fauna of the Northeast Atlantic are still poorly understood. While tectonic uplifts and changes in sea level may have caused large‐scale vicariance, warmer conditions during glacial maxima may have allowed pockets of diversity to persist to a much wider extent than in the Northwestern Atlantic. The large‐scale geographi...

Hybrid zones are fascinating systems to investigate the structure of genetic barriers. Marine hybrid zones deserve more investigation because of the generally high dispersion potential of planktonic larvae which allows migration on scales unrivalled by terrestrial species. Here we analyse the genetic structure of the mosaic hybrid zone between the marine mussels Mytilus edulis and M. galloprovincialis , using three length‐poly...