Genetic structure and phylogeography of a European flagship species, the white‐tailed sea eagle Haliaeetus albicilla

Abstract

We analysed 120 white‐tailed sea eagles Haliaeetus albicilla from eastern (Poland and Estonia) and southeastern (Serbian Danube population) Europe for genetic variability and structuring at the mitochondrial control region and seven nuclear microsatellite loci. We combined this new dataset with sequence and genotype data from previous analyses covering Greenland and Eurasia (total sample sizes of 420 and 186 individuals for mtDNA and microsatellites, respectively) to address the following questions: 1) does the large eastern population in Europe add significantly to the species‘ overall genetic diversity? 2) Do the new sequence data match the clinal distribution pattern (west to east) of the two major mtDNA lineages? 3) Does the preliminary hypothesis of two nuclear genetic clusters recently found in this species hold for the whole of Europe, and do these clusters show a geographic pattern? Our results confirmed Europe as a stronghold of genetic diversity in white‐tailed sea eagles, and the east of the continent contributed disproportionately to this, the reason being the admixture of eagles with different genetic background. As hypothesised, both mitochondrial lineages were recovered also in eastern Europe, but the globally more eastern lineage was dominant. The presence of two microsatellite clusters was also confirmed, and these groups, too, show a non‐random geographic distribution, with, except for Poland, a high proportion of ‘eastern‐type’ eagles in the populations of east–central and eastern Europe.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis reveals Holarctic homogeneity and a distinct Mediterranean lineage in the Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)

“…Clearly, more extensive sampling across the North American continent is needed to shed further light on this issue and to find or rule out the existence of a third, North American lineage. In Europe, the presence of two genetically different lineages strongly contributes to the observed haplotype and nucleotide diversity, a constellation also found in White‐tailed eagles (Langguth et al ., ). When excluding the rarer Holarctic lineage in the Alpine population, its genetic diversity matches the lowest observed diversity in the Golden eagle found in California (Sonsthagen et al ., ).…”

“…The occurrence of two (main) haplogroups in large raptor species is not uncommon. White‐tailed eagles ( Haliaeetus albicilla , Honnen et al ., ; Langguth et al ., ), Cinereous vultures ( Aegypius monachus , Poulakakis et al ., ), Bearded vultures ( Gypaetus barbatus , Godoy et al ., ) as well as the Saker falcon ( Falco cherrug , Nittinger et al ., ) show a partitioning into two mtDNA lineages across their Eurasian distribution (none of them occurs in the Nearctic). What is unusual, however, is the geographic distribution of the two lineages in Golden eagles.…”

“…The reason for this is unclear, but generally, as with the other approaches, there is a lot of contingency here as inferences are based on a single marker. What can be said, though, is that population expansion is much less evident in Golden eagles than for example the White‐tailed eagle (Langguth et al ., ) that overlaps with the former in a huge area in Eurasia. Further studies including a more comprehensive sampling from non‐European parts of the distribution range and adding nuclear markers are indispensable to a deeper understanding of the biogeographic history of this iconic raptor.…”

Distinct and extinct: Genetic differentiation of the Hawaiian eagle

“…For comparison, data from recent phylogeographic studies of White-tailed Eagles (Hailer et al, 2006(Hailer et al, , 2007Honnen et al, 2010;Langguth et al, 2013;Ponnikas et al, 2013) were used, plus the sequence of a Steller's Sea Eagle (GenBank accession AM156946). Because no mtDNA control region samples from Bald Eagles were available on GenBank, we also sequenced 12 Bald Eagle nestlings from northern Wisconsin, each from a different nest.…”

“…Since the publication of Fleischer et al (2000), extensive studies have been conducted on the phylogeography of the White-tailed Eagle, examining the highly variable mtDNA control region (Hailer et al, 2006(Hailer et al, , 2007Honnen et al, 2010;Langguth et al, 2013;Ponnikas et al, 2013 Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 83 (2015) [40][41][42][43] Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r .…”