Article (Scientific journals)
Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters
Fontaine, Michaël C.; Baird, Stuart J. E.; Piry, Sylvain et al.
2007In BMC Biology, 5, p. 30
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Abstract :
[en] BACKGROUND: Understanding the role of seascape in shaping genetic and demographic population structure is highly challenging for marine pelagic species such as cetaceans for which there is generally little evidence of what could effectively restrict their dispersal. In the present work, we applied a combination of recent individual-based landscape genetic approaches to investigate the population genetic structure of a highly mobile extensive range cetacean, the harbour porpoise in the eastern North Atlantic, with regards to oceanographic characteristics that could constrain its dispersal. RESULTS: Analyses of 10 microsatellite loci for 752 individuals revealed that most of the sampled range in the eastern North Atlantic behaves as a 'continuous' population that widely extends over thousands of kilometres with significant isolation by distance (IBD). However, strong barriers to gene flow were detected in the south-eastern part of the range. These barriers coincided with profound changes in environmental characteristics and isolated, on a relatively small scale, porpoises from Iberian waters and on a larger scale porpoises from the Black Sea. CONCLUSION: The presence of these barriers to gene flow that coincide with profound changes in oceanographic features, together with the spatial variation in IBD strength, provide for the first time strong evidence that physical processes have a major impact on the demographic and genetic structure of a cetacean. This genetic pattern further suggests habitat-related fragmentation of the porpoise range that is likely to intensify with predicted surface ocean warming.
Disciplines :
Veterinary medicine & animal health
Aquatic sciences & oceanology
Author, co-author :
Fontaine, Michaël C. ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Océanologie
Baird, Stuart J. E.
Piry, Sylvain
Ray, Nicolas
Tolley, Krystall A.
Duke, Sarah
Birkun, Alexei
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
Siebert, Ursula
Vikingsson, Gilsi A.
Bouquegneau, Jean-Marie ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement > Océanologie
Michaux, Johan  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences et gestion de l'environnement > Zoogéographie
More authors (9 more) Less
Language :
English
Title :
Rise of oceanographic barriers in continuous populations of a cetacean: the genetic structure of harbour porpoises in Old World waters
Publication date :
25 July 2007
Journal title :
BMC Biology
eISSN :
1741-7007
Publisher :
Biomed Central Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Volume :
5
Pages :
30
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Available on ORBi :
since 22 November 2010

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