Genetic Structure of Native and Restored Populations of American Beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata Fern.) along the New Jersey Coast

Slaymaker, D.H.; Peek, M.S.; Wresilo, J.; Zeltner, D.C., and Saleh, Y.F., 2015. Genetic structure of native and restored populations of American beachgrass (Ammophila breviligulata Fern.) along the New Jersey coast. Ammophila breviligulata Fern. (American beachgrass) is planted extensively along the Atlantic coast of North America and in the Great Lakes region to stabilize damaged and constructed coastal dunes. Most A. breviligulata restorations are planted with a single cultivar for rapid dune stabilization. Restoration practice, however, is increasingly focused on maintaining native genetic diversity and restoring ecological services and function. We used intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers to characterize the genetic structure of four native and four restored A. breviligulata populations along the coast of New Jersey on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the United States. Native populations had high levels of genotypic diversity for a clonal species, whereas restored populations on constructed dunes had low diversity or were monotypic. Commercial varieties used in dune restoration were not found in native populations. Native foredune populations were composed of many small- to medium-sized clones, while a rear-dune population was dominated by a single large clone. Genetic differentiation was low among native foredune populations. These results, discussed in the context of other clonal and coastal dune species, suggest that sexual recruitment plays an important role in determining the genetic structure of A. breviligulata populations, that gene flow has occurred among populations along the New Jersey coast, and that native New Jersey populations could provide genotypically diverse plant material for local restoration efforts.