| Summary: | Abstract Human actions are currently threatening the persistence of many species. Loss of genetic diversity and inbreeding can reduce evolutionary potential of species and may even lead to their extinction. Thus, genetic issues should be taken into account in conservation and management of wild and domestic species. In this thesis, I have studied evolutionary and conservation genetics of the taiga bean goose (Anser fabalis fabalis) and the European domestic goose, derived from the greylag goose (A. anser). The taiga bean goose, a subspecies of the bean goose, is of conservation concern as the population numbers have halved during the recent decades. Due to debated taxonomy of the bean goose, I studied the genomic differentiation between the taiga bean goose and another European subspecies, the tundra bean goose (A. f. rossicus). A subspecies status was verified for these taxa, due to low genome-wide differentiation and extensive gene flow between the subspecies. I also studied genetic structure within breeding taiga bean geese in Finland, but no structure was evident. Genetic diversity was at a moderate level, but signs of inbreeding and gene flow with pink-footed goose (A. brachyrhynchus) were discovered. I also studied subspecies composition of the bean goose hunting bag in Finland and found that about half of the hunting bag consisted of the taiga bean goose. Hunting of the tundra bean goose was concentrated in south-eastern Finland. Thus, by geographically limiting the hunting area, the declining taiga bean goose can be relieved from hunting pressure. I also studied over a thousand years of evolutionary history of the European domestic goose in Russia using ancient DNA extracted from archaeological bones. Three evolutionary lineages were discovered: domestic geese, eastern domestic/wild greylag geese and taiga bean geese. The taiga bean geese were present probably due to misidentification of bones in fragmented archaeological material. Undoubted domesticated geese were found from the High-Medieval period ...
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