No leading-edge effect in North Atlantic harbor porpoises: Evolutionary and conservation implications.

ABSTRACT: Understanding species responses to past environmental changes can help forecast how they will cope with ongoing climate changes. Harbor porpoises are widely distributed in the North Atlantic and were deeply impacted by the Pleistocene changes with the split of three subspecies. Despite major impacts of fisheries on natural populations, little is known about population connectivity and dispersal, how they reacted to the Pleistocene changes, and how they will evolve in the future. Here, we used phylogenetics, population genetics, and predictive habitat modeling to investigate population structure and phylogeographic history of the North Atlantic porpoises. A total of 925 porpoises were characterized at 10 microsatellite loci and one quarter of the mitogenome (mtDNA). A highly divergent mtDNA

SUBMITTER: Ben Chehida Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8210799 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature