Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters
Abstract Background Understanding the role of seascape in shaping genetic and demographic population structure is highly challenging for marine pelagic species such as cetaceans for which there is generally little evidence of what could effectively restrict their dispersal. In the present work, we a...
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ftbiomed:oai:biomedcentral.com:1741-7007-5-30 2023-05-15T16:33:27+02:00 Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters Fontaine, Michaël C Baird, Stuart JE Piry, Sylvain Ray, Nicolas Tolley, Krystal A Duke, Sarah Birkun, Alexei Ferreira, Marisa Jauniaux, Thierry Llavona, Ángela Öztürk, Bayram A Öztürk, Ayaka Ridoux, Vincent Rogan, Emer Sequeira, Marina Siebert, Ursula Vikingsson, Gísli A Bouquegneau, Jean-Marie Michaux, Johan R 2007-07-25 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/5/30 en eng BioMed Central Ltd. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/5/30 Copyright 2007 Fontaine et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. Research article 2007 ftbiomed 2007-11-11T15:23:48Z Abstract Background Understanding the role of seascape in shaping genetic and demographic population structure is highly challenging for marine pelagic species such as cetaceans for which there is generally little evidence of what could effectively restrict their dispersal. In the present work, we applied a combination of recent individual-based landscape genetic approaches to investigate the population genetic structure of a highly mobile extensive range cetacean, the harbour porpoise in the eastern North Atlantic, with regards to oceanographic characteristics that could constrain its dispersal. Results Analyses of 10 microsatellite loci for 752 individuals revealed that most of the sampled range in the eastern North Atlantic behaves as a 'continuous' population that widely extends over thousands of kilometres with significant isolation by distance (IBD). However, strong barriers to gene flow were detected in the south-eastern part of the range. These barriers coincided with profound changes in environmental characteristics and isolated, on a relatively small scale, porpoises from Iberian waters and on a larger scale porpoises from the Black Sea. Conclusion The presence of these barriers to gene flow that coincide with profound changes in oceanographic features, together with the spatial variation in IBD strength, provide for the first time strong evidence that physical processes have a major impact on the demographic and genetic structure of a cetacean. This genetic pattern further suggests habitat-related fragmentation of the porpoise range that is likely to intensify with predicted surface ocean warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper Harbour porpoise North Atlantic BioMed Central |
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English |
description |
Abstract Background Understanding the role of seascape in shaping genetic and demographic population structure is highly challenging for marine pelagic species such as cetaceans for which there is generally little evidence of what could effectively restrict their dispersal. In the present work, we applied a combination of recent individual-based landscape genetic approaches to investigate the population genetic structure of a highly mobile extensive range cetacean, the harbour porpoise in the eastern North Atlantic, with regards to oceanographic characteristics that could constrain its dispersal. Results Analyses of 10 microsatellite loci for 752 individuals revealed that most of the sampled range in the eastern North Atlantic behaves as a 'continuous' population that widely extends over thousands of kilometres with significant isolation by distance (IBD). However, strong barriers to gene flow were detected in the south-eastern part of the range. These barriers coincided with profound changes in environmental characteristics and isolated, on a relatively small scale, porpoises from Iberian waters and on a larger scale porpoises from the Black Sea. Conclusion The presence of these barriers to gene flow that coincide with profound changes in oceanographic features, together with the spatial variation in IBD strength, provide for the first time strong evidence that physical processes have a major impact on the demographic and genetic structure of a cetacean. This genetic pattern further suggests habitat-related fragmentation of the porpoise range that is likely to intensify with predicted surface ocean warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fontaine, Michaël C Baird, Stuart JE Piry, Sylvain Ray, Nicolas Tolley, Krystal A Duke, Sarah Birkun, Alexei Ferreira, Marisa Jauniaux, Thierry Llavona, Ángela Öztürk, Bayram A Öztürk, Ayaka Ridoux, Vincent Rogan, Emer Sequeira, Marina Siebert, Ursula Vikingsson, Gísli A Bouquegneau, Jean-Marie Michaux, Johan R |
spellingShingle |
Fontaine, Michaël C Baird, Stuart JE Piry, Sylvain Ray, Nicolas Tolley, Krystal A Duke, Sarah Birkun, Alexei Ferreira, Marisa Jauniaux, Thierry Llavona, Ángela Öztürk, Bayram A Öztürk, Ayaka Ridoux, Vincent Rogan, Emer Sequeira, Marina Siebert, Ursula Vikingsson, Gísli A Bouquegneau, Jean-Marie Michaux, Johan R Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters |
author_facet |
Fontaine, Michaël C Baird, Stuart JE Piry, Sylvain Ray, Nicolas Tolley, Krystal A Duke, Sarah Birkun, Alexei Ferreira, Marisa Jauniaux, Thierry Llavona, Ángela Öztürk, Bayram A Öztürk, Ayaka Ridoux, Vincent Rogan, Emer Sequeira, Marina Siebert, Ursula Vikingsson, Gísli A Bouquegneau, Jean-Marie Michaux, Johan R |
author_sort |
Fontaine, Michaël C |
title |
Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters |
title_short |
Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters |
title_full |
Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters |
title_fullStr |
Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters |
title_sort |
rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in old world waters |
publisher |
BioMed Central Ltd. |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/5/30 |
genre |
Harbour porpoise North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Harbour porpoise North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/5/30 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2007 Fontaine et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. |
_version_ |
1766023137431912448 |