Museum DNA reveals the demographic history of the endangered Seychelles warbler

Evolutionary Applications

Lewis G. Spurgin³  David J. Wright³  Marco van der Velde¹  Nigel J. Collar³  Jan Komdeur¹  Terry Burke² 

[1] Behavioural Ecology and Self-organization Group, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands;Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK;School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk, UK

关键词: Acrocephalus sechellensis;    approximate Bayesian computation;    bird;    bottleneck;    island;    microsatellite;   

DOI  :  10.1111/eva.12191

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

The importance of evolutionary conservation – how understanding evolutionary forces can help guide conservation decisions – is widely recognized. However, the historical demography of many endangered species is unknown, despite the fact that this can have important implications for contemporary ecological processes and for extinction risk. Here, we reconstruct the population history of the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) – an ecological model species. By the 1960s, this species was on the brink of extinction, but its previous history is unknown. We used DNA samples from contemporary and museum specimens spanning 140 years to reconstruct bottleneck history. We found a 25% reduction in genetic diversity between museum and contemporary populations, and strong genetic structure. Simulations indicate that the Seychelles warbler was bottlenecked from a large population, with an ancestral N_e of several thousands falling to <50 within the last century. Such a rapid decline, due to anthropogenic factors, has important implications for extinction risk in the Seychelles warbler, and our results will inform conservation practices. Reconstructing the population history of this species also allows us to better understand patterns of genetic diversity, inbreeding and promiscuity in the contemporary populations. Our approaches can be applied across species to test ecological hypotheses and inform conservation.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 The Authors. Evolutionary Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.