Chinstrap penguin population genetic structure: One or more populations along the Southern Ocean?

• Published in: BMC Evolutionary Biology
• Main Authors: Mura-Jornet, Isidora, Pimentel, Carolina, Dantas, Gisele P.M., Petry, Maria Virginia, González Acuña, Daniel, Barbosa, Andrés, Lowther, Andrew D., Kovacs, Kit M., Poulin, Elie, Vianna, Juliana
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central Ltd. 2018
• Subjects: Antarctica; D-loop; Dispersal; Gene flow; Microsatellites; Pygoscelis antarcticus; Seabirds; Sex-biased; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Bouvetøya; South Shetland Islands; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; antarcticus; Chinstrap penguin
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1207-0; https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/155753

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Historical factors, demography, reproduction and dispersal are crucial in determining the genetic structure of seabirds. In the Antarctic marine environment, penguins are a major component of the avian biomass, dominant predators and important bioindicators of ecological change. Populations of chinstrap penguins have decreased in nearly all their breeding sites, and their range is expanding throughout the Antarctic Peninsula. Population genetic structure of this species has been studied in some colonies, but not between breeding colonies in the Antarctic Peninsula or at the species' easternmost breeding colony (Bouvetøya). Results: Connectivity, sex-biased dispersal, diversity, genetic structure and demographic history were studied using 12 microsatellite loci and a mitochondrial DNA region (HVRI) in 12 breeding colonies in the South Shetland Islands (SSI) and the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP), and one previously unstudied sub-Antarctic island, 360