Data from: Demographic histories and genetic diversities of Fennoscandian marine and landlocked ringed seal subspecies

Back to summary metadata
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Zurich - Nyman, Tommi
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Eastern Finland - Valtonen, Mia
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Oulu - Aspi, Jouni
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Oulu - Ruokonen, Minna
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Eastern Finland - Kunnasranta, Mervi
dc.contributor.affiliationUniversity of Helsinki - Palo, Jukka U.
dc.contributor.authorNyman, Tommi
dc.contributor.authorValtonen, Mia
dc.contributor.authorAspi, Jouni
dc.contributor.authorRuokonen, Minna
dc.contributor.authorKunnasranta, Mervi
dc.contributor.authorPalo, Jukka U.
dc.coverage.spatialFennoscandia
dc.coverage.spatialNorthern Europe
dc.coverage.spatialLake Saimaa
dc.coverage.spatialthe Baltic Sea
dc.coverage.spatialLake Ladoga
dc.date.accessioned2025-03-24T15:21:35Z
dc.date.issued2015-08-13
dc.date.issued2015-08-13
dc.descriptionIsland populations are on average smaller, genetically less diverse, and at a higher risk to go extinct than mainland populations. Low genetic diversity may elevate extinction probability, but the genetic component of the risk can be affected by the mode of diversity loss, which, in turn, is connected to the demographic history of the population. Here, we examined the history of genetic erosion in three Fennoscandian ringed seal subspecies, of which one inhabits the Baltic Sea 'mainland' and two the 'aquatic islands' composed of Lake Saimaa in Finland and Lake Ladoga in Russia. Both lakes were colonized by marine seals after their formation c. 9500 years ago, but Lake Ladoga is larger and more contiguous than Lake Saimaa. All three populations suffered dramatic declines during the 20th century, but the bottleneck was particularly severe in Lake Saimaa. Data from 17 microsatellite loci and mitochondrial control-region sequences show that Saimaa ringed seals have lost most of the genetic diversity present in their Baltic ancestors, while the Ladoga population has experienced only minor reductions. Using Approximate Bayesian computing analyses, we show that the genetic uniformity of the Saimaa subspecies derives from an extended founder event and subsequent slow erosion, rather than from the recent bottleneck. This suggests that the population has persisted for nearly 10,000 years despite having low genetic variation. The relatively high diversity of the Ladoga population appears to result from a high number of initial colonizers and a high post-colonization population size, but possibly also by a shorter isolation period and/or occasional gene flow from the Baltic Sea.
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r25g1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hydatakatalogi-test-24.it.helsinki.fi/handle/123456789/10970
dc.rightsOpen
dc.rights.licensecc-zero
dc.subjectFounder event
dc.subjectisland populations
dc.subjectHolocene
dc.subjectPhoca hispida ladogensis
dc.subjectPhoca hispida saimensis
dc.subjectPhoca hispida botnica
dc.titleData from: Demographic histories and genetic diversities of Fennoscandian marine and landlocked ringed seal subspecies
dc.typedataset
dc.typedataset

Files

Repositories

Zenodo