Demographic histories and genetic diversity across pinnipeds are shaped by human exploitation, ecology and life-history

Stoffel, M.A.; Humble, E.; Paijmans, A.J.; Acevedo-Whitehouse, K.; Chilvers, B.L.; Dickerson, B.; Galimberti, F.; Gemmell, N.J.; Goldsworthy, S.D.; Nichols, H.J.; Krüger, O.; Negro, S.; Osborne, A.; Pastor, T.; Robertson, B.C.; Sanvito, S.; Schultz, J.K.; Shafer, A.B.A.; Wolf, J.B.W.; Hoffman, J.I.. 2018 Demographic histories and genetic diversity across pinnipeds are shaped by human exploitation, ecology and life-history. Nature Communications, 9 (1). 12, pp. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06695-z

Before downloading, please read NORA policies.

Preview

Text
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
s41467-018-06695-z.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
Download (1MB) | Preview

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06695-z

Abstract/Summary

A central paradigm in conservation biology is that population bottlenecks reduce genetic diversity and population viability. In an era of biodiversity loss and climate change, understanding the determinants and consequences of bottlenecks is therefore an important challenge. However, as most studies focus on single species, the multitude of potential drivers and the consequences of bottlenecks remain elusive. Here, we combined genetic data from over 11,000 individuals of 30 pinniped species with demographic, ecological and life history data to evaluate the consequences of commercial exploitation by 18th and 19th century sealers. We show that around one third of these species exhibit strong signatures of recent population declines. Bottleneck strength is associated with breeding habitat and mating system variation, and together with global abundance explains much of the variation in genetic diversity across species. Overall, bottleneck intensity is unrelated to IUCN status, although the three most heavily bottlenecked species are endangered. Our study reveals an unforeseen interplay between human exploitation, animal biology, demographic declines and genetic diversity.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06695-z
ISSN:	2041-1723
Date made live:	27 Nov 2018 12:05 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521700

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06695-z

ISSN:

2041-1723

Date made live:

27 Nov 2018 12:05 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521700