Genomics detects population structure within and between ocean basins in a circumpolar seabird: The white‐chinned petrel

• Published in: Molecular Ecology
• Main Authors: Rexer‐huber, Kalinka, Veale, Andrew, Catry, Paulo, Cherel, Yves, Dutoit, Ludovic, Foster, Yasmin, Mcewan, John, Parker, Graham, Phillips, Richard, A., Ryan, Peter, Y. A., Stanworth, Andrew, Stijn, Tracey, Thompson, David, Waters, Jonathan, Robertson, Bruce
• Other Authors: Department of Zoology, University of Otago Dunedin, Nouvelle-Zélande, Parker Conservation New Zealand, MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre Portugal, Instituto Universitário Portugal, Centre d'Études Biologiques de Chizé - UMR 7372 (CEBC), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-La Rochelle Université (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), AgResearch New Zealand, Invermay Agricultural Centre New Zealand, British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town-DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, Falklands Conservation, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Wellington (NIWA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2019
• Subjects: circumpolar; GBS; genetic structure; population genomics; seabird; Southern Ocean; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Indian; New Zealand
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02364909; https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15248

International audience The Southern Ocean represents a continuous stretch of circumpolar marine habitat,but the potential physical and ecological drivers of evolutionary genetic differentiationacross this vast ecosystem remain unclear. We tested for genetic structure acrossthe full circumpolar range of the white‐chinned petrel (Procellaria aequinoctialis) tounravel the potential drivers of population differentiation and test alternative populationdifferentiation hypotheses. Following range‐wide comprehensive sampling,we applied genomic (genotyping‐by‐sequencing or GBS; 60,709 loci) and standardmitochondrial‐marker approaches (cytochrome b and first domain of control region)to quantify genetic diversity within and among island populations, test for isolationby distance, and quantify the number of genetic clusters using neutral and outlier(non‐neutral) loci. Our results supported the multi‐region hypothesis, with a rangeof analyses showing clear three‐region genetic population structure, split by oceanbasin, within two evolutionary units. The most significant differentiation betweenthese regions confirmed previous work distinguishing New Zealand and nominatesubspecies. Although there was little evidence of structure within the island groupsof the Indian or Atlantic oceans, a small set of highly‐discriminatory outlier loci couldassign petrels to ocean basin and potentially to island group, though the latter needs further verification. Genomic data hold the key to revealing substantial regional geneticstructure within wide‐ranging circumpolar species previously assumed to bepanmictic.