Effect of pollution on genetic diversity in the bay mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and the acorn barnacle Balanus glandula

To test if environmental contamination acts as a selection force affecting genetic diversity at the population level, two intertidal invertebrate species, Mytilus galloprovincialis and Balanus glandula, were collected from seven different bay sites in southern California. Collections were made at three relatively pristine ‘clean’ sites and four ‘impacted’ sites exposed to heavy industrial or boating activity, and which had previously been identified as having measurable levels of pollution. Genetic diversity at each site was assessed by comparing fragment polymorphisms generated from genomic DNA by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR). All populations retained a large amount of genetic diversity and were genetically similar to each other. However, several different measures of diversity indicated that, for most primers, the populations of both species from impacted sites had lower genetic diversity compared to those populations from clean sites. Individuals at impacted sites were more likely to share the same haplotypes than were those from clean sites. Few bands seen in the clean sites were absent from the impacted sites or vice versa, but a number of bands in the clean site populations were significantly less common in the impacted populations, while a few bands uncommon in clean site populations were more common at impacted sites. Together, these results suggest that pollution at the impacted sites may reduce genetic diversity among the resident invertebrate populations.