The ephemeral shorebird: population history of ruffs (original) (raw)
Related papers
Genetic differentiation in an endangered and strongly philopatric, migrant shorebird
2021
Background Populations living in fragmented habitats may suffer from loss of genetic variation and reduced between-patch dispersal, which are processes that can result in genetic differentiation. This occurs frequently in species with reduced mobility, whereas genetic differentiation is less common among mobile species such as migratory birds. The high dispersal capacity in the latter species usually allows for gene flow even in fragmented landscapes. However, strongly philopatric behaviour can reinforce relative isolation and the degree of genetic differentiation. The Southern Dunlin ( Calidris alpina schinzii ) is a philopatric, long-distance migratory shorebird and shows reduced dispersal between isolated breeding patches. The endangered population of the Southern Dunlin breeding at the Baltic Sea has suffered from habitat deterioration and fragmentation of coastal meadows. We sampled DNA across the entire population and used 12 polymorphic microsatellite loci to examine whether ...
Long-distance migrant waders breeding in the Arctic often have globally structured populations, largely because they were isolated in glacial or interstadial refugia or are restricted to fragmented coastal wetlands in winter. Conversely, inland species using continentally distributed wetlands appear to be less structured (more panmictic), presumably because they are less likely to have been isolated by multiple refugia or by current events. We analyzed genetic variation in a widely distributed inland species, the ruff (Philomachus pugnax), sampled from seven Eurasian breeding localities, and from migration routes and wintering areas in Europe and Africa. One mitochondrial marker (n = 118) and eight nuclear microsatellites (n = 170) showed (a) high genetic variation, (b) large genetic distances among mitochondrial (private) haplotypes within breeding populations, (c) the absence of a signature of isolation-by-distance, and (d) a distribution of private microsatellite alleles indicating dispersal between Scandinavia and Siberia, but not between western and East Siberia. These results were consistent with a large refugial population during the Last Glacial Maximum, and postglacial long range expansions spreading ancestral polymorphisms, and not with a stepping-stone model of gene flow. The divergence between breeding populations in Europe and Siberia was dated to about 12,000 years ago. Though genetic population structure is presently statistically nonexistent, support for evolving population structure came from analyses of geographic variation in two relevant phenotypic traits, wing length and timing of migration. Analysis of 6,077 individuals sampled on migration in 2002-08 revealed that in each year shorter-winged birds migrated through significantly later than longer-winged birds. The late-passing birds were associated with more westerly breeding localities. In conclusion, the lack of genetic structuring in ruffs (and other inland species we examined) contrasts with strong structuring in many coastal species which is in accordance with the hypothesis. This suggests that the ability to use more widely available inland habitat influences the evolution of genetic structure and the maintenance of genetic variation in waders.
In most migrant birds, young perform their first migration independently of adults. The presumed dearth of learning opportunities has been linked to a lack of fast adaptive change in migration routes. Here we describe the first example of an adaptive route change within a generation of a migratory bird. Ruffs (Philomachus pugnax) migrating from West Africa to Fennoscandinavia and Russia via The Netherlands, shifted to alter-native staging areas, after staging performance was compromised. Between 2004-08, 4,363 males were tracked by individual colour-ringing and partly, by radio-tags. Between 2004-08, 145 individuals previously colour-ringed in The Netherlands occurred increasingly eastwards, as far as the next major staging site, 1500 km east in Belarus. This individual flexibility correlated with a new April cohort of 20,000 migrants appearing in Belarus. Capture-resighting methods revealed that individual length of stay of the Dutch migrants declined from 23 to 19 days between 200...
Nature communications, 2011
Pelagic seabirds are highly mobile, reducing the likelihood of allopatric speciation where disruption of gene flow between populations is caused by physically insurmountable, extrinsic barriers. Spatial segregation during the non-breeding season appears to provide an intrinsic barrier to gene flow among seabird populations that otherwise occupy nearby or overlapping regions during breeding, but how this is achieved remains unclear. Here we show that the two genetically distinct populations of Cook's petrel (Pterodroma cookii) exhibit transequatorial separation of non-breeding ranges at contemporary (ca. 2-3 yrs) and historical (ca. 100 yrs) time scales. Segregation during the non-breeding season per se appears as an unlikely barrier to gene flow. Instead we provide evidence that habitat specialization during the non-breeding season is associated with breeding asynchrony which, in conjunction with philopatry, restricts gene flow. Habitat specialization during breeding and non-bre...
Journal of Ornithology, 2007
Shorebirds, or waders, form an ecologically (but not phylogenetically) homogenous group of birds that, despite this homogeneity, exhibits clear correlated contrasts in habitat use and migration distance between closely related species pairs. In addition, within species there is distinct variation in breeding and wintering latitudes, i.e. migration distance. I examine here such contrasts at different taxonomic levels and evaluate what we can learn about selective forces on habitat selection and the evolution of migration strategies in birds. My primary example is the worldwide migration system of the Red Knot Calidris canutus. These sandpipers breed only on high arctic tundra (65-83°N), but they move south from their disjunct, circumpolar breeding areas to nonbreeding sites on the coasts of all continents (except Antarctica), between latitudes 58°N and 53°S. Due to their specialized sensory capabilities, Red Knots generally eat hard-shelled prey found on intertidal, mostly soft, substrates. As a consequence, ecologically suitable coastal sites are few and far between, so they must routinely undertake flights of many thousands of kilometres. In contrast to prediction, Red Knots at tropical intertidal sites have lower fuelling rates than birds at more southern or northern latitudes. This leads to greater time-stress in the southernmost wintering populations that not only have to cover over 14,000 km in single migrations, but also cannot rely on tropical regions to make refuelling stops. Rapid human-caused losses of the food-base in staging areas during both north-and southward migrations have been demonstrated to have caused rapid declines in several Red Knot populations. Detailed worldwide ecodemographic research on these extreme long-distance migrants, as embodied in, for example, the recently established Global Flyway Network, yields a two-pronged benefit: (1) on the basis of the unintended large-scale experiments carried out by humans, we rapidly come to grips with the selection pressures moulding the migration strategies of migrant birds, and (2) in applied contexts, the work gives instantaneous feedbacks on the conservation consequences of man-made alterations to wetland environments at the relevant global spatial scales.
Wing shape and migration in shorebirds: a comparative study
Ibis, 2015
Migration is an energetically expensive and hazardous stage of the annual cycle of non-resident avian species, and requires certain morphological adaptations. Wing shape is one of the morphological traits that is expected to be evolutionarily shaped by migration. Aerodynamic theory predicts that long-distance migrants should have more pointed wings with distal primaries relatively longer than proximal primaries, an arrangement that minimizes induced drag and wing inertia, but this prediction has mostly been tested in passerine species. We applied the comparative method of phylogenetically independent contrasts to assess convergent evolution between wing shape and migration within shorebirds. We confirmed the assumption that long-distance migrants have less rounded wings than species migrating shorter distances. Furthermore, wing roundedness negatively correlates with fat load and mean distance of migratory flights, the basic components of migration strategies. After controlling for interspecific differences in body size, we found no support for a link between wing length and migration, indicating that wing shape is a more important predictor of shorebird migratory behaviour than wing length. The results suggest that total migration distance and migratory strategy may simultaneously act on the evolution of wing shape in shorebirds, and possibly in other avian species.
PLoS ONE, 2011
Understanding and resolving conflicts between phenotypic and genetic differentiation is central to evolutionary research. While phenotypically monomorphic species may exhibit deep genetic divergences, some morphologically distinct taxa lack notable genetic differentiation. Here we conduct a molecular investigation of an enigmatic shorebird with a convoluted taxonomic history, the White-faced Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus dealbatus), widely regarded as a subspecies of the Kentish Plover (C. alexandrinus). Described as distinct in 1863, its name was consistently misapplied in subsequent decades until taxonomic clarification ensued in 2008. Using a recently proposed test of species delimitation, we reconfirm the phenotypic distinctness of dealbatus. We then compare three mitochondrial and seven nuclear DNA markers among 278 samples of dealbatus and alexandrinus from across their breeding range and four other closely related plovers. We fail to find any population genetic differentiation between dealbatus and alexandrinus, whereas the other species are deeply diverged at the study loci.
BMC evolutionary biology, 2017
In seabirds, the extent of population genetic and phylogeographic structure varies extensively among species. Genetic structure is lacking in some species, but present in others despite the absence of obvious physical barriers (landmarks), suggesting that other mechanisms restrict gene flow. It has been proposed that the extent of genetic structure in seabirds is best explained by relative overlap in non-breeding distributions of birds from different populations. We used results from the analysis of microsatellite DNA variation and geolocation (tracking) data to test this hypothesis. We studied three small (130-200 g), very abundant, zooplanktivorous petrels (Procellariiformes, Aves), each sampled at two breeding populations that were widely separated (Atlantic and Indian Ocean sectors of the Southern Ocean) but differed in the degree of overlap in non-breeding distributions; the wintering areas of the two Antarctic prion (Pachyptila desolata) populations are separated by over 5000 ...