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The genetic composition of groups of individuals can significantly influence the productivity, resilience, and functioning of communities and ecosystems. For example, the relatedness of individuals within a group often dictates whether their interactions are competitive or cooperative. It is therefore necessary to characterize the genetic structure of populations at spatial scales relevant to these interactions and to determine the distribution of genetic diversity at those scales. Using microsatellite data, we assessed fine-scale population structure of Zostera marina, an important habitat-forming seagrass, within and between Bodega Harbor and Tomales Bay in northern California, USA. Despite the potential for long-range dispersal, we found significant population structure at all hierarchical scales (among bays, among sites, among tidal heights), corresponding to distances ranging from meters to tens of kilometers. The …