Article (Scientific journals)
Genetic and historic evidence for climate-driven population fragmentation in a top cetacean predator: the harbour porpoises in European water.
Fontaine, Michaël C.; Tolley, Krystal A.; Michaux, Johan et al.
2010In Proceedings of the Royal Society. Biological Sciences, 277 (1695), p. 2829-37
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Abstract :
[en] Recent climate change has triggered profound reorganization in northeast Atlantic ecosystems, with substantial impact on the distribution of marine assemblages from plankton to fishes. However, assessing the repercussions on apex marine predators remains a challenging issue, especially for pelagic species. In this study, we use Bayesian coalescent modelling of microsatellite variation to track the population demographic history of one of the smallest temperate cetaceans, the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) in European waters. Combining genetic inferences with palaeo-oceanographic and historical records provides strong evidence that populations of harbour porpoises have responded markedly to the recent climate-driven reorganization in the eastern North Atlantic food web. This response includes the isolation of porpoises in Iberian waters from those further north only approximately 300 years ago with a predominant northward migration, contemporaneous with the warming trend underway since the 'Little Ice Age' period and with the ongoing retreat of cold-water fishes from the Bay of Biscay. The extinction or exodus of harbour porpoises from the Mediterranean Sea (leaving an isolated relict population in the Black Sea) has lacked a coherent explanation. The present results suggest that the fragmentation of harbour distribution range in the Mediterranean Sea was triggered during the warm 'Mid-Holocene Optimum' period (approx. 5000 years ago), by the end of the post-glacial nutrient-rich 'Sapropel' conditions that prevailed before that time.
Disciplines :
Zoology
Author, co-author :
Fontaine, Michaël C. 
Tolley, Krystal A.
Michaux, Johan  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de la vie > Génétique
Birkun, Alexei Jr
Ferreira, Marisa
Jauniaux, Thierry ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de morphologie et pathologie > Département de morphologie et pathologie
Llavona, Angela
Ozturk, Bayram
Ozturk, Ayaka A.
Ridoux, Vincent
Rogan, Emer
Sequeira, Marina
Bouquegneau, Jean-Marie ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement > Océanologie
Baird, Stuart J. E.
More authors (4 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
Genetic and historic evidence for climate-driven population fragmentation in a top cetacean predator: the harbour porpoises in European water.
Publication date :
2010
Journal title :
Proceedings of the Royal Society. Biological Sciences
ISSN :
0962-8452
eISSN :
1471-2954
Publisher :
Royal Society, London, United Kingdom
Volume :
277
Issue :
1695
Pages :
2829-37
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 23 December 2010

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