Rapid radiation of Southern Ocean shags in response to receding sea ice ...

• Main Author: Rawlence, Nic
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2021
• Subjects: FOS Biological sciences; Sea ice; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8kprr4xp9; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.8kprr4xp9

Aim: Understanding how wild populations respond to climatic shifts is a fundamental goal of biological research in a fast-changing world. The Southern Ocean represents a fascinating system for assessing large-scale climate-driven biological change, as it contains extremely isolated island groups within a predominantly westerly, circumpolar wind and current system. The blue-eyed shags (Leucocarbo spp.) represent a paradoxical Southern Ocean seabird radiation; a circumpolar distribution implies strong dispersal capacity yet their speciose nature suggests local adaptation and isolation. Here we use genetic tools in an attempt to resolve this paradox. Location: Southern Ocean. Taxa: 17 species and subspecies of blue-eyed shags (Leucocarbo spp.) across the geographical distribution of the genus. Methods: Here we use mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data to conduct the first global genetic analysis of this group using a temporal phylogenetic framework to test for rapid speciation. Results: Our analysis reveals ...