Abstract:
As species recover from exploitation, continued assessments of connectivity and population structure
are warranted to provide information for conservation and management. This is particularly true
in species with high dispersal capacity, such as migratory whales, where patterns of connectivity
could change rapidly. Here we build on a previous long-term, large-scale collaboration on southern
right whales (Eubalaena australis) to combine new (nnew) and published (npub) mitochondrial
(mtDNA) and microsatellite genetic data from all major wintering grounds and, uniquely, the South
Georgia (Islas Georgias del Sur: SG) feeding grounds. Specifically, we include data from Argentina
(npub mtDNA/microsatellite = 208/46), Brazil (nnew mtDNA/microsatellite = 50/50), South Africa
(nnew mtDNA/microsatellite = 66/77, npub mtDNA/microsatellite = 350/47), Chile–Peru (nnew mtDNA/
microsatellite = 1/1), the Indo-Pacific (npub mtDNA/microsatellite = 769/126), and SG (npub mtDNA/
microsatellite = 8/0, nnew mtDNA/microsatellite = 3/11) to investigate the position of previously
unstudied habitats in the migratory network: Brazil, SG, and Chile–Peru. These new genetic data
show connectivity between Brazil and Argentina, exemplified by weak genetic differentiation and
the movement of 1 genetically identified individual between the South American grounds. The single
sample from Chile–Peru had an mtDNA haplotype previously only observed in the Indo-Pacific and
had a nuclear genotype that appeared admixed between the Indo-Pacific and South Atlantic, based on
genetic clustering and assignment algorithms. The SG samples were clearly South Atlantic and were
more similar to the South American than the South African wintering grounds. This study highlights
how international collaborations are critical to provide context for emerging or recovering regions,
like the SG feeding ground, as well as those that remain critically endangered, such as Chile–Peru.
Description:
We have deposited the primary data underlying these analyses as follows: Microsatellite data: genotypes of all samples used in analysis archived in genepop format at Dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pg4f4qrk8; DNA sequences: Mitochondrial DNA haplotype frequencies for each region and linked Genbank Accession numbers in Excel file, along with example Arlequin file, submitted to dryad https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.pg4f4qrk8.