Shallow genetic population structure in an expanding migratory bird with high breeding site fidelity, the Western Eurasian Crane Grus grus grus

• Published in: Journal of ornithology Vol. 160; no. 4; pp. 965 - 972
• Main Authors: Haase, Martin, Höltje, Henriette, Blahy, Beate, Bridge, Damon, Henne, Eberhard, Johansson, Ulf S., Kaldma, Katrin, Khudyakova, Ekaterina A., King, Amy, Leito, Aivar, Mewes, Wolfgang, Mudrik, Elena A., Ojaste, Ivar, Politov, Dmitry V., Popken, Ronald, Rinne, Juhani, Stanbury, Andrew, Tofft, Jesper, Väli, Ülo, Schmitz Ornés, Angela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.10.2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Bayesian analysis; Bayesian theory; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Breeding sites; Denmark; Discriminant analysis; Ecology; extinction; Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management; Genetic diversity; genetic variance; Genotyping; Grus grus; Grus grus grus; Life Sciences; microsatellite repeats; migratory birds; Migratory species; Netherlands; Original Article; philopatry; Population; Population genetics; Population structure; Range extension; Site fidelity; Statistical analysis; United Kingdom; variance; Western European region; Zoology; Denmark; United Kingdom; Netherlands; Western European region; Analyses of molecular variance; Population expansion; Population growth; Bayesian clustering; Population genetics; Gruiformes
• ISSN: 2193-7192; 2193-7206
• DOI: 10.1007/s10336-019-01688-1

For more than half a century, the Western Eurasian Crane ( Grus grus grus ) has been expanding its range toward western Europe, recolonizing areas where it had been previously driven to extinction, including the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark. The Western Eurasian Crane is, on the one hand, a very mobile, migratory species, but on the other, is territorial and shows high breeding site fidelity. Hence, its genetic population structure is subject to antagonizing forces, which have different consequences. Based on the genotyping of six highly variable microsatellite loci, we inferred the population structure of the Western Eurasian Crane from samples from eight regions. We integrated classic F -statistics including analyses of molecular variance with a priori designation of structure and divisive clustering approaches, i.e. a Bayesian procedure (STRUCTURE) and discriminant analysis of principal components, which infer structure a posteriori. According to the F -statistics, populations were only weakly differentiated, and the majority of the genetic variance (> 90%) was attributed to individuals. At first glance, the divisive approaches appeared to agree in finding four clusters. Yet, there was no correspondence regarding the composition of the clusters and none of the results were biologically meaningful. However, STRUCTURE delivered an alternative interpretation, designating the highest likelihood to a scenario without subdivision, in clear agreement with the findings based on the F -statistics. In conclusion, the Western Eurasian Crane is genetically largely homogeneous, probably as a consequence of the rapid growth and range expansion of its population.