Low genetic differentiation between Greenlandic and Siberian Sanderling populations implies a different phylogeographic history than found in Red Knots

Abstract

The Greenlandic and west-central Siberian breeding populations of Sanderlings Calidris alba are separated by ca. 2000 km during the breeding season, but mix in Europe to some extent during migration. However, the number of Siberian Sanderlings that spend the nonbreeding season along the East Atlantic Flyway (extending from western Europe to South Africa), if any, is unknown. Although both populations are considered part of the nominate subspecies C. a. alba based on morphology, population structure in Sanderlings has yet to be described with molecular methods. We examined genetic differentiation at the mtDNA control region (CR) and seven microsatellite loci between Greenland-and Siberia-breeding Sanderlings in order to: (1) develop a diagnostic tool for assessing the breeding origin of Sanderlings along the East Atlantic Flyway, and (2) provide a comparison with the co-distributed and ecologically similar Red Knot, in which CR differentiation of geographically analogous populations (C. canutus islandica and C. c. canutus) has indicated isolation of lineages near the time of the last glacial maximum. By contrast, we found only weak differentiation between the Sanderling breeding populations at the CR, and no differentiation at microsatellite loci. These results suggest that the assignment of breeding origin of Sanderlings on Afro-European flyways will not be possible with simple and inexpensive genetic methods, and imply that Sanderlings and Red Knots have very different post-glacial phylogeographic histories.

Rapid climate‐driven loss of breeding habitat for Arctic migratory birds

“…Warmer conditions during the mid‐Holocene climatic optimum are linked to population bottlenecks for some Arctic breeding shorebirds (Wennerberg et al ., ; Buehler & Baker, ; Buehler et al ., ; Conklin et al ., ); yet our analysis shows that the difference between present conditions and those during the mid‐Holocene is much smaller than that expected over the coming decades (Fig. ).…”

“…The present configuration of migratory routes taken by Arctic breeding shorebirds likely emerged only during the current interglacial cycle (Piersma, 2011) and warmer climates in the past, for example during the mid-Holocene climatic optimum (~6000 bp), have been associated with genetic bottlenecks in some Arctic breeding shorebirds (Wennerberg et al, 2002;Conklin et al, 2015). For example, genetic analysis suggests a very recent divergence among subspecies of red knot Calidris canutus, possibly due to bottlenecks at this time (Buehler & Baker, 2005;Buehler et al, 2006).…”

Effects of food abundance and early clutch predation on reproductive timing in a high Arctic shorebird exposed to advancements in arthropod abundance

“…The coastal nonbreeding area of the Greenlandic population ranges from Namibia in the south and northern Scotland in the north (Conklin et al. ; Loonstra et al. ).…”

“…Sanderlings are long-distance migratory sandpipers. The coastal nonbreeding area of the Greenlandic population ranges from Namibia in the south and northern Scotland in the north (Conklin et al 2016;Loonstra et al 2016). Typically, Sanderlings arrive at their breeding grounds in northeast Greenland between late May and mid-June (Meltofte et al 2007b).…”

“Noah’s Ark” Project: Interim Results and Outlook for Classic Collection Development

“…The combination of genomic phylogeography and genetic barcoding provided new data on the structure of species diversity in a number of animal groups. In the Nothybidae (Insecta) family [78], several economically important species of Salmonidae and Cyprinidae (Osteichthyes) [79][80][81][82][83][84] and species-level taxa from 10 families of terrestrial vertebrates in Eurasia have been studied in this respect [64,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95]. The high efficiency of COI gene analysis in revealing the diversity of phylogenetic lineages in a number of Amphibia genera has been demonstrated [96].…”