Data from: Marine protected area restricts demographic connectivity: dissimilarity in a marine environment can function as a biological barrier

Field data of anemonefish distributionThis file contains raw data collected from the field survey. In the sheet we listed: the id, collection date, location category (e.g., MPA, fishing zones in the eastern side or western side of MPA), transformed latitude, transformed longitude, anemonefish species name (SP), number of self-recruits produced at this host anemone (MSR), number of self-recruits (SR), number of self-recruits from the fishing zones (OSR), number of self-recruits from the MPA (ISR), number of immigrants (IM), total abundance of target anemonefish (Ab), adult abundance of target anemonefish (Adult), juvenile abundance of target anemonefish (Juv), host species name (Habitat; e.g., EQ Entacmaea quadricolor, HC Heteractis crispa, SG Stichodactyla gigantea), size of host anemone (Size), presence or absence of female anemonefish (Female), total length of female anemonefish (F size), ,depth of anemone (Dep), size of each fish (Size 1~7). Latitude and longitude were transformed to prevent aquarium poaching.Field_Data_Sato et al.xlsxData of microsatellite genotypesThis file contains the genotypes for target anemonefish species (Amphiprion frenatus and A. perideraion). The first sheet is for A. frenatus having 14 loci and the second one is for A. perideraion having 15 loci. Collected anemonefishes from Lagindingan were categorized as a candidate mother, father or juvenile in the Sample ID. We also listed the collection date, GPS ID, location category (e.g., MPA, fishing zones in the eastern side or western side of MPA). The third sheet has the geographic coordinates that correspond to each GPS waypoint, but latitude and longitude were transformed to prevent aquarium poaching.Genotype_Data_Sato et al.xlsx

The establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) can often lead to environmental differences between MPAs and fishing zones. To determine the effects on marine dispersal of environmental dissimilarity between an MPA and fishing zone, we examined the abundance and recruitment patterns of two anemonefishes (Amphiprion frenatus and A. perideraion) that inhabit sea anemones in different management zones (i.e., an MPA and two fishing zones) by performing a field survey and a genetic parentage analysis. We found lower levels of abundance per anemone in the MPA compared to the fishing zones for both species (n = 1,525 anemones, p = .032). The parentage analysis also showed that lower numbers of fishes were recruited from the fishing zones and outside of the study area into each anemone in the MPA than into each anemone in the fishing zones (n = 1,525 anemones, p < .017). However, the number of self-recruit production per female did not differ between the MPA and fishing zones (n = 384 females, p = .516). Because the ocean currents around the study site were unlikely to cause a lower settlement intensity of larvae in the MPA, the ocean circulation was not considered crucial to the observed abundance and recruitment patterns. Instead, stronger top-down control and/or a lower density of host anemones in the MPA were potential factors for such patterns. Our results highlight the importance of dissimilarity in a marine environment as a factor that affects connectivity.