Utility for conservation
The clarification of genetic divergence and evolutionary history of subspecies highlights the predictive value of subspecies designation. The availability of genomic divergence data strengthens the necessity to treat these subspecies as different conservation units, helping to avoid neglect of important genetic resources. The cases of cryptic species going extinct before human recognition should be alarming (Yan et al., 2018). In practice, our assessment provides instructions for selecting source plants for transplanting or breeding in mangrove restoration projects. The conservation of individual species and intraspecific genetic diversity is of great importance in mangrove conservation. The stability of the ecosystem may be cumulatively enhanced by weak effects of individual units of diversity, analogous to gene regulatory networks (Chen et al., 2019). As one of the most widely distributed mangrove species, A. marina is important for the ecological health of coastal ecosystems, especially as the global climate continues to change.