Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters

• Published in: BMC Biology
• Main Authors: Fontaine, Michaël, Stuart, Stuart, Piry, Sylvain, Ray, Nicolas, Tolley, Krystal A., Duke, Sarah, Birkun Jr., Alexei, Ferreira, Marisa, Jauniaux, Thierry, Llavona, Angela, Oztürk, Bayram, Ozturk, Ayaka A., Ridoux, Vincent, Rogan, Emer, Sequeira, Marina, Siebert, Ursula, Vinkingsson, Gisli A., Bouquegneau, Jean-Marie, Michaux, Johan
• Other Authors: Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (UMR CBGP), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD France-Sud )-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro), Université de Liège, Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE), Norwegian Institute of Marine Research, South African National Biodiversity Institute, University College Dublin (UCD), National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine = Національна академія наук України = Académie nationale des sciences d'Ukraine (NASU / НАН України), Portuguese Wildlife Society, Partenaires INRAE, Coordinadora para o Estudio dos Mamiferos Marinos, Faculty of fisheries, Istanbul University, La Rochelle Université (ULR), Department of Zoology, Ecology and Plant Science, University College Cork (UCC), Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e da Biodiversidade, Forschungs- und Technologiezentrum Westküste (FTZ), Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel = Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel = Université Christian-Albrechts de Kiel (CAU), Marine Research Institute
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: DEMOGRAPHIE; PHOCOENA PHOCOENA; GENETIQUE DES POPULATIONS; ESPECE PELAGIQUE; MARSOUIN COMMUN; [SDV.BC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Cellular Biology; Harbour porpoise; North Atlantic; Phocoena phocoena
• Online Access: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02663380; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02663380/document; https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-02663380/file/19647_20080523091606550_1.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-5-30

Correspondance: [e-mail] International audience 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