Do different subspecies of Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa overlap in Iberian wintering and staging areas? Validation with genetic markers

Lopes, Ricardo J., Alves, José A., Gill, Jennifer A., Gunnarsson, Tómas G., Hooijmeijer, Jos C. E. W., Lourenço, Pedro M., Masero, Jose A., Piersma, Theunis, Potts, Peter M., Rabaçal, Bruno, Reis, Sandra, Sánchez-Guzman, Juan M., Santiago-Quesada, Francisco and Villegas, Auxiliadora (2013) Do different subspecies of Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa overlap in Iberian wintering and staging areas? Validation with genetic markers. Journal of Ornithology, 154 (1). pp. 35-40. ISSN 0021-8375

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Abstract

Resolving the migratory connectivity (identifying non-breeding grounds) of migrating bird populations that are morphologically similar is crucial for an understanding of their population dynamics and ultimately their conservation. Such is the case in Black-tailed Godwits Limosa limosa, where the Iceland-breeding subspecies islandica shows overlap during the non-breeding season with the continental-Europe-breeding limosa. On the basis of variation in the control region of mitochondrial DNA, it was already shown that there is a clear geographic structure in their phylogeography and a clear discrimination between the haplotypes of the two subspecies. We can thus assign subspecies of non-breeding individuals on the basis of a molecular assay. Here we validated this approach using samples of 113 birds with known breeding origin, and on the basis of haplotype variation, all birds were properly assigned to each subspecies. We then tested for overlap during non-breeding season using a sample of 278 birds from an Iberian wintering and staging area, the inland rice fields in southwest Iberia (Extremadura, Spain). We showed that even in this inland area, 6.5 % of the birds belonged to islandica subspecies, thus demonstrating the usefulness of genetic markers as an alternative or supplementary method to the most common approach, individual colour-ringing.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	waders,limosa,migratory connnectivity,conservation genetics
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Organisms and the Environment
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	04 Jul 2014 12:38
Last Modified:	17 May 2023 01:14
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/48738
DOI:	10.1007/s10336-012-0865-8

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