Dispersal in the sub-Antarctic: king penguins show remarkably little population genetic differentiation across their range.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Seabirds are important components of marine ecosystems, both as predators and as indicators of ecological change, being conspicuous and sensitive to changes in prey abundance. To determine whether fluctuations in population sizes are localised or indicative of large-scale ecosystem change, we must first understand population structure and dispersal. King penguins are long-lived seabirds that occupy a niche across the sub-Antarctic zone close to the Polar Front. Colonies have very different histories of exploitation, population recovery, and expansion.

Results

We investigated the genetic population structure and patterns of colonisation of king penguins across their current range using a dataset of 5154 unlinked, high-coverage single nucleotide polymorphisms genera

SUBMITTER: Clucas GV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5062852 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature