The Purple Sandpiper (Calidris maritima) is a medium‐sized shorebird that breeds in the Arctic and winters along northern Atlantic coastlines. Migration routes and affiliations between breeding grounds and wintering grounds are incompletely understood. Some populations appear to be declining, and future management policies for this species will benefit from understanding their migration patterns. This study used two mitochondrial DNA markers and 10 microsatellite loci to analyze current population structure and historical demographic trends. Samples were obtained from breeding locations in Nunavut (Canada), Iceland, and Svalbard (Norway) and from wintering locations along the coast of Maine (USA), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland (Canada), and Scotland (UK). Mitochondrial haplotypes displayed low genetic diversity, and a shallow phylogeny indicating recent divergence. With the exception of the two Canadian breeding populations from Nunavut, there was significant genetic differentiation among samples from all breeding locations; however, none of the breeding populations was a monophyletic group. We also found differentiation between both Iceland and Svalbard breeding populations and North American wintering populations. This pattern of divergence is consistent with a previously proposed migratory pathway between Canadian breeding locations and wintering grounds in the United Kingdom, but argues against migration between breeding grounds in Iceland and Svalbard and wintering grounds in North America. Breeding birds from Svalbard also showed a genetic signature intermediate between Canadian breeders and Icelandic breeders. Our results extend current knowledge of Purple Sandpiper population genetic structure and present new information regarding migration routes to wintering grounds in North America.
Like many shorebirds, purple sandpipers ( Calidris maritima [Brünnich] Charadriiformes: Scolopacidae) have experienced population declines in recent years, but causes of these declines have not been established. As part of a larger study to identify causes of these declines, we collected and examined 25 purple sandpipers in coastal Nova Scotia, Canada during March 2013. In the course of dissections to collect tissue samples, we detected a cluster of trematodes in the air sac of 1 bird that were subsequently identified as cyclocoelids belonging to the genus Morishitium Witenberg, 1928, which we believe is the first report of this genus of parasites in this host. Cyclocoelids have been reported from other scolopacids and other shorebird families, but we are unaware of reports of serious pathology arising from these trematodes. Given this and the low prevalence (4%) in our sample, our data cannot ascribe declines in purple sandpiper populations to these trematodes, but our sample is limited both spatially and temporally.
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