Martin Scharlemann and Jennifer Schultens
The Heegaard genus $g$ of an irreducible closed orientable $3$-manifold puts a limit on the number and complexity of the pieces that arise in the Jaco-Shalen-Johannson decomposition of the manifold by its canonical tori. For example, if $p$ of the complementary components are not Seifert fibered, then $p \leq g-1$. This generalizes work of Kobayashi \cite{Ko}. The Heegaard genus $g$ also puts explicit bounds on the complexity of the Seifert pieces. For example, if the union of the Seifert pieces has base space $P$ and $f$ exceptional fibers, then $$f - \chi(P) \leq 3g - 3 - p.$$