Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change
Environmental change drives demographic and evolutionary processes that determine diversity within and among species. Tracking these processes during periods of change reveals mechanisms for the establishment of populations and provides predictive data on response to potential future impacts, includ...
Published in: | PLoS Genetics |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science
2009
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/13804 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000554 |
id |
ftunivpretoria:oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/13804 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunivpretoria:oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/13804 2023-05-15T13:48:21+02:00 Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change De Bruyn, Mark Hall, Brenda L. Chauke, Lucas Floid Baroni, Carlo Koch, Paul L. Hoelzel, A. Rus 2009-07 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/13804 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000554 en eng Public Library of Science http://hdl.handle.net/2263/13804 De Bruyn, M, Hall, BL, Chauke, LF, Baroni, C, Koch, PL & Hoelzel, AR 2009, 'Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change', PLoS Genetics, vol. 5, no. 7. [http://www.plosgenetics.org] 1553-7390 doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000554 © 2009 de Bruyn et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Holocene climate Marine mammals -- Habitat -- Antarctica Species diversity -- Antarctica Seals -- Variation -- Antarctica Animal breeding -- Antarctica Southern elephant seal -- Reproduction -- Climatic factors -- Antarctica Article 2009 ftunivpretoria https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000554 2022-05-31T13:35:15Z Environmental change drives demographic and evolutionary processes that determine diversity within and among species. Tracking these processes during periods of change reveals mechanisms for the establishment of populations and provides predictive data on response to potential future impacts, including those caused by anthropogenic climate change. Here we show how a highly mobile marine species responded to the gain and loss of new breeding habitat. Southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina, remains were found along the Victoria Land Coast (VLC) in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, 2,500 km from the nearest extant breeding site on Macquarie Island (MQ). This habitat was released after retreat of the grounded ice sheet in the Ross Sea Embayment 7,500–8,000 cal YBP, and is within the range of modern foraging excursions from the MQ colony. Using ancient mtDNA and coalescent models, we tracked the population dynamics of the now extinct VLC colony and the connectivity between this and extant breeding sites. We found a clear expansion signal in the VLC population ,8,000 YBP, followed by directional migration away from VLC and the loss of diversity at ,1,000 YBP, when sea ice is thought to have expanded. Our data suggest that VLC seals came initially from MQ and that some returned there once the VLC habitat was lost, ,7,000 years later. We track the founder-extinction dynamics of a population from inception to extinction in the context of Holocene climate change and present evidence that an unexpectedly diverse, differentiated breeding population was founded from a distant source population soon after habitat became available. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Elephant Seal Ice Sheet Macquarie Island Mirounga leonina Ross Sea Sea ice Southern Elephant Seal Victoria Land University of Pretoria: UPSpace Ross Sea Victoria Land PLoS Genetics 5 7 e1000554 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Pretoria: UPSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivpretoria |
language |
English |
topic |
Holocene climate Marine mammals -- Habitat -- Antarctica Species diversity -- Antarctica Seals -- Variation -- Antarctica Animal breeding -- Antarctica Southern elephant seal -- Reproduction -- Climatic factors -- Antarctica |
spellingShingle |
Holocene climate Marine mammals -- Habitat -- Antarctica Species diversity -- Antarctica Seals -- Variation -- Antarctica Animal breeding -- Antarctica Southern elephant seal -- Reproduction -- Climatic factors -- Antarctica De Bruyn, Mark Hall, Brenda L. Chauke, Lucas Floid Baroni, Carlo Koch, Paul L. Hoelzel, A. Rus Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change |
topic_facet |
Holocene climate Marine mammals -- Habitat -- Antarctica Species diversity -- Antarctica Seals -- Variation -- Antarctica Animal breeding -- Antarctica Southern elephant seal -- Reproduction -- Climatic factors -- Antarctica |
description |
Environmental change drives demographic and evolutionary processes that determine diversity within and among species. Tracking these processes during periods of change reveals mechanisms for the establishment of populations and provides predictive data on response to potential future impacts, including those caused by anthropogenic climate change. Here we show how a highly mobile marine species responded to the gain and loss of new breeding habitat. Southern elephant seal, Mirounga leonina, remains were found along the Victoria Land Coast (VLC) in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, 2,500 km from the nearest extant breeding site on Macquarie Island (MQ). This habitat was released after retreat of the grounded ice sheet in the Ross Sea Embayment 7,500–8,000 cal YBP, and is within the range of modern foraging excursions from the MQ colony. Using ancient mtDNA and coalescent models, we tracked the population dynamics of the now extinct VLC colony and the connectivity between this and extant breeding sites. We found a clear expansion signal in the VLC population ,8,000 YBP, followed by directional migration away from VLC and the loss of diversity at ,1,000 YBP, when sea ice is thought to have expanded. Our data suggest that VLC seals came initially from MQ and that some returned there once the VLC habitat was lost, ,7,000 years later. We track the founder-extinction dynamics of a population from inception to extinction in the context of Holocene climate change and present evidence that an unexpectedly diverse, differentiated breeding population was founded from a distant source population soon after habitat became available. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
De Bruyn, Mark Hall, Brenda L. Chauke, Lucas Floid Baroni, Carlo Koch, Paul L. Hoelzel, A. Rus |
author_facet |
De Bruyn, Mark Hall, Brenda L. Chauke, Lucas Floid Baroni, Carlo Koch, Paul L. Hoelzel, A. Rus |
author_sort |
De Bruyn, Mark |
title |
Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change |
title_short |
Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change |
title_full |
Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change |
title_fullStr |
Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change |
title_sort |
rapid response of a marine mammal species to holocene climate and habitat change |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/13804 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000554 |
geographic |
Ross Sea Victoria Land |
geographic_facet |
Ross Sea Victoria Land |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Elephant Seal Ice Sheet Macquarie Island Mirounga leonina Ross Sea Sea ice Southern Elephant Seal Victoria Land |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Elephant Seal Ice Sheet Macquarie Island Mirounga leonina Ross Sea Sea ice Southern Elephant Seal Victoria Land |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/2263/13804 De Bruyn, M, Hall, BL, Chauke, LF, Baroni, C, Koch, PL & Hoelzel, AR 2009, 'Rapid response of a marine mammal species to Holocene climate and habitat change', PLoS Genetics, vol. 5, no. 7. [http://www.plosgenetics.org] 1553-7390 doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000554 |
op_rights |
© 2009 de Bruyn et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000554 |
container_title |
PLoS Genetics |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
e1000554 |
_version_ |
1766249169021829120 |