The antique genetic plight of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus)

Salmona J., Dayon J., Lecompte E., Karamanlidis A. A., Aguilar A., Fernandez de Larrinoa P., ...Daha Fazla

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, cilt.289, sa.1981, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 289 Sayı: 1981
  • Basım Tarihi: 2022
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0846
  • Dergi Adı: PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Animal Behavior Abstracts, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), Artic & Antarctic Regions, BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, EMBASE, Geobase, MEDLINE, Veterinary Science Database
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Mediterranean monk seal, population decline, demographic history, marine mammals, genetic diversity, isolation by distance, R-PACKAGE, MARINE RESOURCES, MASS MORTALITY, WESTERN SAHARA, CONSERVATION, DIVERSITY, BASIN, DNA, EXPLOITATION, ARCHIPELAGO
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

Disentangling the impact of Late Quaternary climate change from human activities can have crucial implications on the conservation of endangered species. We investigated the population genetics and demography of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus), one of the world's most endangered marine mammals, through an unprecedented dataset encompassing historical (extinct) and extant populations from the eastern North Atlantic to the entire Mediterranean Basin. We show that Cabo Blanco (Western Sahara/Mauritania), Madeira, Western Mediterranean (historical range) and Eastern Mediterranean regions segregate into four populations. This structure is probably the consequence of recent drift, combined with long-term isolation by distance (R-2 = 0.7), resulting from prevailing short-distance (less than 500 km) and infrequent long-distance dispersal (less than 1500 km). All populations (Madeira especially), show high levels of inbreeding and low levels of genetic diversity, seemingly declining since historical time, but surprisingly not being impacted by the 1997 massive die-off in Cabo Blanco. Approximate Bayesian Computation analyses support scenarios combining local extinctions and a major effective population size decline in all populations during Antiquity. Our results suggest that the early densification of human populations around the Mediterranean Basin coupled with the development of seafaring techniques were the main drivers of the decline of Mediterranean monk seals.