Population structure and dispersal patterns in Scottish Golden Eagles <i>Aquila chrysaetos</i> revealed by molecular genetic analysis of territorial birds

Ogden, Rob; Heap, Elizabeth; McEwing, Ross; Tingay, Ruth E.; Whitfield, D. Philip

doi:10.1111/ibi.12282

Cited by 24 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(118 reference statements)

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“…Additionally, we did not detect any significant inbreeding coefficient larger than zero, which may be explained either by birds choosing unrelated individuals as mates (Smith et al 1997) or the limited sample size of our study (Bourke et al 2010, Ogden et al 2015. Choosing mates among unrelated individuals is the dominant pattern in birds and mammals (Smith et al 1997, Hoffman et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Genetic diversity is retained in a bottlenecked Cinereous Vulture population in Turkey

Çakmak

Pekşen

Kirazlı

et al. 2018

Ibis

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Vulture populations worldwide have suffered precipitous declines in recent decades. The Cinereous Vulture Aegypius monachus, a highly philopatric scavenger distributed across southern Europe and the central Asian plateau, is threatened in many parts of its range. Turkey holds the second largest population of this species in the Western Palaearctic, but there has been no research on its genetic structure and the possible implications of this structure for the future of the species. Here we report nuclear diversity and relatedness determined by short tandem repeat genotyping of 81 individuals from the four largest colonies. Our results demonstrated no significant genetic structuring, suggesting a single panmictic metapopulation connected by frequent dispersal. Furthermore, we show that the study population has retained moderate levels of genetic diversity, despite passing through a recent demographic bottleneck. We estimated the effective population size to be 112 individuals (95% confidence interval 74–201). Our results imply that the observed lack of increase in population size since the 1990s has not been caused by lowered fitness due to genetic inbreeding but rather by increased mortality via demographic processes. In the short term, we suggest that conservation efforts should treat the Turkish subpopulations as a single management unit and aim to increase population size through effective protection, especially during the breeding season.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Genetic diversity is retained in a bottlenecked Cinereous Vulture population in Turkey

Çakmak

Pekşen

Kirazlı

et al. 2018

Ibis

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“…As breeding habitat was a primary focus of the landscape genetic analyses, and the site‐based approach was dependent on inferences regarding breeding territory size, a sampling approach that focused on nest sites would have been ideal. Similarly, inferences of geographic structure could be biased by the sampling of non‐resident individuals (Ogden et al ), although currently there is little knowledge of juvenile dispersal in this species. However, the potential for nest abandonment by Tasmanian A. audax resulting from experimenter visitation during the breeding season (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intrinsic factors drive spatial genetic variation in a highly vagile species, the wedge‐tailed eagle Aquila audax, in Tasmania

Kozakiewicz

Carver

Austin

et al. 2017

Journal of Avian Biology

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Knowledge of dispersal in a species, both its quantity and the factors influencing it, are crucial for our understanding of ecology and evolution, and for species conservation. Here we quantified and formally assessed the potential contribution of extrinsic factors on individual dispersal in the threatened Tasmanian population of wedge-tailed eagle Aquila audax. As successful breeding by these individuals appears strongly related to habitat, we tested the effect of landscape around sampling sites on genetic diversity and spatial genetic variation, as these are influenced by patterns of dispersal. Similarly, we also tested whether habitat intervening sampling sites could explain spatial genetic variation. Twenty microsatellites were scored, but only a small proportion of spatial genetic variation (4.6%) could be explained by extrinsic factors, namely habitat suitability and elevation between sites. However, significant clinal genetic variation was evident across Tasmania, which we explain by intrinsic factors, likely high natal philopatry and occasional long-distance dispersal. This study demonstrates that spatial genetic variation can be detected in highly vagile species at spatial scales that are small relative to putative dispersal ability, although here there was no substantial relationship with landscape factors tested.

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“…Sex was identified from feather samples using the 2550F/2718R (Fridolfsson & Ellegren 1999) or the GEfUp/GErUp and GEfLow/GErLow primer pairs (Ogden et al 2015). PCR profiles followed the original papers, but PCR profile of the latter was completed by an initial touch-down section where the annealing temperature decreased from 65 to 60°C during 7 cycles.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic structure confirms female-biased natal dispersal in the White-tailed Eagle population of the Carpathian Basin

Nemesházi¹,

Szabó²,

Horváth³

et al. 2018

Acta Zool Acad Sci H

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Individuals can avoid inbreeding or competition with kin via long-distance natal dispersal. On the other hand, staying close to the well-known natal area may be a safer choice with respect to recruiting opportunities, reproductive success and the individual's survival probability as well. Natal dispersal strategy often differs between sexes, being generally female-biased in birds. We explored if the Carpathian Basin White-tailed Eagle population shows fine scale genetic structure and if it does, what is the extent of philopatry in the two sexes. We furthermore investigated sex bias in natal dispersal distance inferred from spatial distributions of genetically close relative breeding females and males. Spatial autocorrelation analyses failed to find fine-scale genetic structure, despite the species being known to be philopatric. Pairwise breeding distances of close relatives showed female bias according to Wilcoxon rank sum test. The median distance of two close relative females was 136 km, while it was only 38 km in males. Since White-tailed Eagles are known to be faithful to their breeding territory, we assumed that the breeding distance between an individual and its parents refers to the individual's natal dispersal distance. Due to the same reason, the breeding distance of two siblings should also be related to their individual dispersal distances from their shared natal area. Therefore, we argue that the difference we found between sexes in pairwise breeding distances of close relatives stands for a female-biased natal dispersal. This bias may be a consequence of the species' breeding strategy, and it decreases the inbreeding probability as well.

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Population structure and dispersal patterns in Scottish Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos revealed by molecular genetic analysis of territorial birds

Cited by 24 publications

References 44 publications

Genetic diversity is retained in a bottlenecked Cinereous Vulture population in Turkey

Genetic diversity is retained in a bottlenecked Cinereous Vulture population in Turkey

Intrinsic factors drive spatial genetic variation in a highly vagile species, the wedge‐tailed eagle Aquila audax, in Tasmania

Genetic structure confirms female-biased natal dispersal in the White-tailed Eagle population of the Carpathian Basin

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