Population structure and connectivity of the mountainous star coral, , throughout the wider Caribbean region.

As coral reefs continue to decline worldwide, it becomes ever more necessary to understand the connectivity between coral populations to develop efficient management strategies facilitating survival and adaptation of coral reefs in the future. is one of the most important reef-building corals in the Caribbean and has recently experienced severe population reductions. Here, we utilize a panel of nine microsatellite loci to evaluate the genetic structure of and to infer connectivity across ten sites spanning the wider Caribbean region.