Abstract Understanding the connectivity among populations is a key research priority for species of conservation concern. Genetic tools are widely used for this purpose, but the results can be limited by the resolution of the genetic markers in relation to the species and geographic scale. Here, we investigated natal philopatry in green turtles (Chelonia mydas) from four rookeries within close geographic proximity (~200 km) on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. We genotyped hypervariable mtSTRs, a mtDNA control region sequence (CR) and 13 microsatellite loci to genetically characterise 479 green turtles using markers with different modes of inheritance. We demonstrated matrilineal stock structure for the first time among Mediterranean green turtle rookeries. This result contradicts previous regional assessments and supports a growing body of evidence that green turtles exhibit a more precise level of natal site fidelity than has commonly been recognised. The microsatellites detected weak male philopatry with significant stock structure among three of the six pairwise comparisons. The absence of Atlantic CR haplotypes and mtSTRs amongst these robust sample sizes reaffirms the reproductive isolation of Mediterranean green turtles and supports their status as a subpopulation. A power analysis effectively demonstrated that the mtDNA genetic markers previously employed to evaluate regional stock identity were confounded by an insufficient resolution considering the recent colonisation of this region. These findings improve the regional understanding of stock connectivity and illustrate the importance of using suitable genetic markers to define appropriate units for management and conservation.

中文翻译：

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使用增强的分子工具定义保护单位，以揭示地中海绿海龟群中的精细尺度结构

摘要 了解种群之间的连通性是保护关注物种的关键研究重点。遗传工具广泛用于此目的，但结果可能会受到与物种和地理范围相关的遗传标记分辨率的限制。在这里，我们调查了来自地中海塞浦路斯岛地理邻近（约 200 公里）内的四个栖息地的绿海龟（Chelonia mydas）的出生亲缘关系。我们对高变 mtSTR、一个 mtDNA 控制区序列 (CR) 和 13 个微卫星位点进行基因分型，以使用具有不同遗传模式的标记对 479 只绿海龟进行遗传表征。我们首次在地中海绿海龟群中展示了母系种群结构。这一结果与之前的区域评估相矛盾，并支持越来越多的证据表明绿海龟表现出比通常公认的更精确的出生地点保真度水平。在六个成对比较中的三个中，微卫星检测到具有显着种群结构的弱雄性亲缘关系。在这些强大的样本量中缺乏大西洋 CR 单倍型和 mtSTR，重申了地中海绿海龟的生殖隔离，并支持它们作为亚群的地位。功效分析有效地表明，考虑到该地区最近的殖民化，先前用于评估区域种群身份的 mtDNA 遗传标记因分辨率不足而混淆。