Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

Natacha Nikolic; Paul Thompson; Mark de Bruyn; Matthias Macé; Claude Chevalet

doi:10.7717/peerj.9167

Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

Natacha Nikolic^* (Corresponding Author), Paul Thompson, Mark de Bruyn, Matthias Macé, Claude Chevalet

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

13 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Efforts to conserve marine mammals are often constrained by uncertainty over their population history. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population in the Moray Firth, northeast Scotland using genetic tools and microsatellite markers to explore population change. Previous fine-scale analysis of UK harbour seal populations revealed three clusters in the UK, with a northeastern cluster that included our Moray Firth study population. Our analysis revealed that the Moray Firth cluster is an independent genetic group, with similar levels of genetic diversity across each of the localities sampled. These samples were used to assess historic abundance and demographic events in the Moray Firth population. Estimates of current genetic diversity and effective population size were low, but the results indicated that this population has remained at broadly similar levels following the population bottleneck that occurred after post-glacial recolonization of the area.

Original language	English
Article number	e9167
Number of pages	29
Journal	PeerJ
Volume	8
Early online date	10 Jul 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9167
Publication status	Published - Jul 2020

Bibliographical note

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank Shaneve Tripp (NYU School of Law) and Wendy West (DAFF) for their english corrections. Ludovic Hoarau (IFREMER) for his help on ArcGis. Katia Feve (INRAE) for her help with the DNA extraction protocol. DNA samples were extracted at INRAE and genotyped at the Toulouse Genopole Platform (http://www.genotoul.fr/). Anonymous reviewers provided many helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Funding
This work was supported by INRAE (FRANCE), Genotoul platform (FRANCE), and
University of Aberdeen. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Data Availability
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
Data is available at INRAE: Nikolic, Natacha; Thompson, Paul; De Bruyn, Mark; Macé, Matthias; Chevalet, Claude, 2020, ‘‘Microsatellite data from: Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population’’,
https://doi.org/10.15454/AOZ7JI, Portail Data INRAE, V2.

Keywords

evolution
genetic
seal
COMPUTER-PROGRAM
MICROSATELLITE VARIATION
GREY SEALS
SIZE
Genetic
PHOCA-VITULINA
WILD POPULATION
SOFTWARE
GENETIC DIVERSITY
CONSERVATION
Evolution
Seal
REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.7717/peerj.9167Licence: CC BY

Nikolic_et_al_PeerJ_EvolutionaryHistory_VoR
© 2020 Nikolic et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Final published version, 7.38 MBLicence: CC BY

http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/ peerj.9167#supplemental-informationLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{ec45248390ea499f87c1e125d7ee96b1,

title = "Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population",

abstract = "Efforts to conserve marine mammals are often constrained by uncertainty over their population history. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population in the Moray Firth, northeast Scotland using genetic tools and microsatellite markers to explore population change. Previous fine-scale analysis of UK harbour seal populations revealed three clusters in the UK, with a northeastern cluster that included our Moray Firth study population. Our analysis revealed that the Moray Firth cluster is an independent genetic group, with similar levels of genetic diversity across each of the localities sampled. These samples were used to assess historic abundance and demographic events in the Moray Firth population. Estimates of current genetic diversity and effective population size were low, but the results indicated that this population has remained at broadly similar levels following the population bottleneck that occurred after post-glacial recolonization of the area.",

keywords = "evolution, genetic, seal, COMPUTER-PROGRAM, MICROSATELLITE VARIATION, GREY SEALS, SIZE, Genetic, PHOCA-VITULINA, WILD POPULATION, SOFTWARE, GENETIC DIVERSITY, CONSERVATION, Evolution, Seal, REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS",

author = "Natacha Nikolic and Paul Thompson and {de Bruyn}, Mark and Matthias Mac{\'e} and Claude Chevalet",

note = "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank Shaneve Tripp (NYU School of Law) and Wendy West (DAFF) for their english corrections. Ludovic Hoarau (IFREMER) for his help on ArcGis. Katia Feve (INRAE) for her help with the DNA extraction protocol. DNA samples were extracted at INRAE and genotyped at the Toulouse Genopole Platform (http://www.genotoul.fr/). Anonymous reviewers provided many helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Funding This work was supported by INRAE (FRANCE), Genotoul platform (FRANCE), and University of Aberdeen. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Data Availability The following information was supplied regarding data availability: Data is available at INRAE: Nikolic, Natacha; Thompson, Paul; De Bruyn, Mark; Mac{\'e}, Matthias; Chevalet, Claude, 2020, {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}Microsatellite data from: Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright}, https://doi.org/10.15454/AOZ7JI, Portail Data INRAE, V2.",

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language = "English",

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journal = "PeerJ",

issn = "2167-8359",

publisher = "PEERJ INC",

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T1 - Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

AU - Nikolic, Natacha

AU - Thompson, Paul

AU - de Bruyn, Mark

AU - Macé, Matthias

AU - Chevalet, Claude

N1 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank Shaneve Tripp (NYU School of Law) and Wendy West (DAFF) for their english corrections. Ludovic Hoarau (IFREMER) for his help on ArcGis. Katia Feve (INRAE) for her help with the DNA extraction protocol. DNA samples were extracted at INRAE and genotyped at the Toulouse Genopole Platform (http://www.genotoul.fr/). Anonymous reviewers provided many helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Funding This work was supported by INRAE (FRANCE), Genotoul platform (FRANCE), and University of Aberdeen. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Data Availability The following information was supplied regarding data availability: Data is available at INRAE: Nikolic, Natacha; Thompson, Paul; De Bruyn, Mark; Macé, Matthias; Chevalet, Claude, 2020, ‘‘Microsatellite data from: Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population’’, https://doi.org/10.15454/AOZ7JI, Portail Data INRAE, V2.

PY - 2020/7

Y1 - 2020/7

N2 - Efforts to conserve marine mammals are often constrained by uncertainty over their population history. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population in the Moray Firth, northeast Scotland using genetic tools and microsatellite markers to explore population change. Previous fine-scale analysis of UK harbour seal populations revealed three clusters in the UK, with a northeastern cluster that included our Moray Firth study population. Our analysis revealed that the Moray Firth cluster is an independent genetic group, with similar levels of genetic diversity across each of the localities sampled. These samples were used to assess historic abundance and demographic events in the Moray Firth population. Estimates of current genetic diversity and effective population size were low, but the results indicated that this population has remained at broadly similar levels following the population bottleneck that occurred after post-glacial recolonization of the area.

AB - Efforts to conserve marine mammals are often constrained by uncertainty over their population history. Here, we examine the evolutionary history of a harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population in the Moray Firth, northeast Scotland using genetic tools and microsatellite markers to explore population change. Previous fine-scale analysis of UK harbour seal populations revealed three clusters in the UK, with a northeastern cluster that included our Moray Firth study population. Our analysis revealed that the Moray Firth cluster is an independent genetic group, with similar levels of genetic diversity across each of the localities sampled. These samples were used to assess historic abundance and demographic events in the Moray Firth population. Estimates of current genetic diversity and effective population size were low, but the results indicated that this population has remained at broadly similar levels following the population bottleneck that occurred after post-glacial recolonization of the area.

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KW - MICROSATELLITE VARIATION

KW - GREY SEALS

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KW - Genetic

KW - PHOCA-VITULINA

KW - WILD POPULATION

KW - SOFTWARE

KW - GENETIC DIVERSITY

KW - CONSERVATION

KW - Evolution

KW - Seal

KW - REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS

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U2 - 10.7717/peerj.9167

DO - 10.7717/peerj.9167

M3 - Article

SN - 2167-8359

VL - 8

JO - PeerJ

JF - PeerJ

M1 - e9167

ER -

Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Microsatellite data from: Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

Cite this

Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Datasets

Microsatellite data from: Evolutionary history of a Scottish harbour seal population

Cite this