Pyrenean ptarmigans decline under climatic and human influences through the Holocene.

• Published in: Heredity
• Main Authors: Bech, N., Barbu, C. M., Quéméré, E., Novoa, C., Allienne, Jean-François, Boissier, J.
• Other Authors: Ecologie et biologie des interactions (EBI), Université de Poitiers-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Ecologie et évolution des interactions 2011-2014 (2EI), Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité de recherche Comportement et Ecologie de la Faune Sauvage (CEFS), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (ONCFS), Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage; Ministere de l'Enseignement Superieur et de la Recherche; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2013
• Subjects: demographic history; climate change; changes in land use; Holocene; habitat fragmentation; Lagopus muta; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; Arctic; Climate change; rock ptarmigan; Tundra
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00843921; https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2013.62

International audience In Europe, the Quaternary is characterized by climatic fluctuations known to have led to many cycles of contraction and expansion of species geographical ranges. In addition, during the Holocene, historical changes in human occupation such as colonization or abandonment of traditional land uses can also affect habitats. These climatically or anthropically induced geographic range changes are expected to produce considerable effective population size change, measurable in terms of genetic diversity and organization. The rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) is a small-bodied grouse occurring throughout Northern hemispheric arctic and alpine tundra. This species is not considered threatened at a continental scale, but the populations in the Pyrenees are of concern because of their small population size, geographical isolation and low genetic diversity. Here, we used 11 microsatellites to investigate genetic variations and differentiations and infer the overall demographic history of Pyrenean rock ptarmigan populations. The low genetic variability found in these populations has been previously thought to be the result of a bottleneck that occurred following the last glacial maximum (i.e., 10 000 years ago) or more recently (i.e., during the last 200 years). Our results clearly indicate a major bottleneck affecting the populations in the last tenth of the Holocene. We discuss how this decline can be explained by a combination of unfavorable and successive events that increased the degree of habitat fragmentation.Heredity advance online publication, 10 July 2013; doi:10.1038/hdy.2013.62.