Breeding site fidelity and winter admixture in a long-distance migrant, the tufted duck (Aythya fuligula)

Abstract

Long-distance migrants are, by definition, highly mobile but it is poorly understood if this leads to high rates of gene flow and an essentially panmictic global population structure. Genetic divergence in migratory species could be promoted, for example, by fidelity to distinct migratory pathways. In this study, we investigate the population genetic structure of tufted duck (Aythya fuligula), a long-distance migrant with a largely continuous breeding distribution across Eurasia. Distinct, longitudinally oriented flyways have been postulated based on geographically disjunct wintering areas and are supported by evidence from ringing data. We generated sequences of the mitochondrial control region and multi-locus microsatellite genotypes for several hundreds of samples from the European and Asian breeding and wintering grounds including some individuals infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1. Significant differentiation between breeding sites was observed for both marker types, but F ST values were approximately 10 times higher for maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA than for biparentally transmitted nuclear markers. The genetic differentiation between the postulated European and Asian flyways was similar to that observed within continents and, in general, genetic divergence was not associated with geographic distance. Neither marker type showed evidence of genetic substructure among aggregations on the European wintering grounds. Our results suggest some breeding site fidelity, especially in females, but extensive population admixture on the wintering grounds. Several scenarios may explain the observed lack of genetic divergence between Europe and Asia including non-equilibrium conditions following a recent range expansion or contemporary gene flow across the postulated migratory divides.

Spatiotemporal dynamics of Puumala hantavirus associated with its rodent host, Myodes glareolus

“…; Chen and Holmes ; Liu et al. , ). In our system, the mismatch between the deepest levels of host and virus population structure (Fig.…”

Great flexibility in autumn movement patterns of European gadwalls Anas strepera

“…In summary, the great flexibility observed in migrating gadwalls during autumn appears to be consistent with, and likely surpasses, individual, variable movements of ducks during other parts of the annual cycle (Salomonsen 1968, Keller et al 2009, Sauter et al 2010). Furthermore, ring recoveries as well as genetic analyses indicate that European dabbling and diving ducks frequently connect flyways that were formerly thought to be separated (Guillemain et al 2005, Keller et al 2009, Kraus et al 2011, Liu et al 2012). This flexibility in migration behaviour may strongly enhance the ability of duck species to discover suitable water bodies, despite the spatially and temporally patchy distribution of this habitat type.…”

Admixture between released and wild game birds: a changing genetic landscape in European mallards (Anas platyrhynchos)

“…This could explain the inconsistent results regarding heterozygosity between the current study and those by Champagnon et al (2013a) and Čížková et al (2012), who found a greater difference between farmed and wild mallards based on microsatellite analyses. Even though it is commonly acknowledged that the intrapopulation genetic structure of migratory birds is largely protected by philopatric habits (Liu et al 2012) or other migratory traditions (Jonker et al 2013), there are also examples of species with no signs of genetic structure on the continental scale (Reudink et al 2011). As a case in point, this is true for the mallard, which shows an almost total lack of global genetic structure (Delany and Scott 2006;Kraus et al 2013).…”