Uncovering population structure in the Humboldt penguin (Spheniscus humboldti) along the Pacific coast at South America.

ABSTRACT: The upwelling hypothesis has been proposed to explain reduced or lack of population structure in seabird species specialized in food resources available at cold-water upwellings. However, population genetic structure may be challenging to detect in species with large population sizes, since variation in allele frequencies are more robust under genetic drift. High gene flow among populations, that can be constant or pulses of migration in a short period, may also decrease power of algorithms to detect genetic structure. Penguin species usually have large population sizes, high migratory ability but philopatric behavior, and recent investigations debate the existence of subtle population structure for some species not detected before. Previous study on Humboldt penguins found lack of populat

SUBMITTER: Dantas GPM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6510429 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature