Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

International audience Efforts to conserve marine mammals are often constrained by uncertainty over their population history. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population in the Moray Firth, northeast Scotland using genetic tools and microsatellite markers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ
Main Authors: Nikolic, Natacha, N., Thompson, Paul, M., de Bruyn, Mark, Macé, Matthias, Chevalet, Claude, C.
Other Authors: Génétique Physiologie et Systèmes d'Elevage (GenPhySE ), Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse (ENVT), Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-École nationale supérieure agronomique de Toulouse (ENSAT), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Purpan (INP - PURPAN), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), University of Aberdeen, The University of Sydney, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2020
Subjects:
Population Biology Keywords Evolution
Seal
Evolution
Genetic
Subjects Evolutionary Studies
Genetics
[SDV.OT]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Other [q-bio.OT]
harbour seal
Phoca vitulina
Online Access:https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02905617
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02905617/document
https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02905617/file/2020_Peerj_Nikolic.pdf
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9167
Description
Summary:International audience Efforts to conserve marine mammals are often constrained by uncertainty over their population history. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population in the Moray Firth, northeast Scotland using genetic tools and microsatellite markers to explore population change. Previous fine-scale analysis of UK harbour seal populations revealed three dusters in the UK, with a northeastern cluster that included our Moray Firth study population. Our analysis revealed that the Moray Firth cluster is an independent genetic group, with similar levels of genetic diversity across each of the localities sampled. These samples were used to assess historic abundance and demographic events in the Moray Firth population. Estimates of current genetic diversity and effective population size were low, but the results indicated that this population has remained at broadly similar levels following the population bottleneck that occurred after post-glacial recolonization of the area.

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