Abstract
Species' distributions are often discontinuous near the edge of the range where the environment may be more variable than the core of the range. Range discontinuity can reduce or cut off gene flow to small peripheral populations and lead to genetic drift and subsequent loss of genetic diversity. The southern extent of the Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) range in North America is discontinuous, unlike their northern core range across the boreal forests. We sampled owls from five different locations on the periphery of the range across the western US (Wyoming, Idaho, California, northern Oregon, and southern Oregon) to investigate genetic population structure and genetic diversity. Using a reduced-representation genomic sequencing approach to genotype 123 individuals at 4817 single nucleotide polymorphic loci, we identified four genetically differentiated populations: California, southern Oregon, northern Oregon, and Wyoming and Idaho grouped together as a single Rocky Mountain population. The four genetically differentiated populations of Great Gray Owls identified in this study display high differentiation and low genetic variation, which is suggestive of long-term isolation and lack of connectivity, potentially caused by range discontinuity. The populations that lack habitat connectivity to the rest of the breeding range (i.e. those in California and Oregon) had lower genetic diversity than the Rocky Mountain population that is connected to the core of the range. These factors and other risks (such as disease and human-caused mortality) heighten susceptibility of these range-edge populations to future habitat and climate changes, genetic diversity erosion, and potential extinction vortex. For these reasons, protecting and monitoring this species on the southern edge of their range is vital.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in Dryad: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1rn8pk0qm.
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Acknowledgements
Financial support was provided by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department State Wildlife Grant, Meg and Bert Raynes Wildlife Fund, Wyoming Wildlife Foundation, Raptor Research Foundation Dean Amadon Grant, University of Wyoming Department of Veterinary Science, University of Wyoming College of Agriculture and Barbara and Richard Powell. The authors thank C.A. Buerkle for providing all custom R and Perl scripts, along with invaluable guidance on the molecular, analytical and theoretical aspects of this work. We thank C. Wagner, K. Gustafson, and V. Chhatre for theoretical and data analysis support. We thank Teton Raptor Center, K. Gura, B. Tanner, D. Holt, Wild Skies Raptor Center, Owl Research Institute, University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates, R.P. Gerhardt of Sage Science, USGS Bird Banding Laboratory, the USDA Forest Service, Yosemite National Park, US Bureau of Land Management Medford District, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Grand Teton National Park, Bridger Teton National Forest, Craighead Beringia South, Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, California Department of Fish and Game, Lindsay Wildlife Hospital, UC Davis Raptor Center, UC Davis Veterinary Teaching Hospital, UC. Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, J.J. Keane, W.K. Savage, S.A. Godwin, J.A Shafer, E.P. Jepsen, C. Stermer, N. Anderson, E. Bull, R. Byrnes, J. Duncan, A. Engilis, W. Farrier, C. Gallagher, D. Gerhardt, P. Krueger, J. Maurer, J. Medley, S. Patla, B. Stedman, S. Stock, L. Tierney, and S. Thompson for collecting and donating samples.
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B.M. and H.B.E. conceived the idea; B.M. and B.B. collected the data and performed experiments; H.B.E. supervised the research; B.M, B.B., S.M.L.S. and H.B.E. developed or designed methods; B.M., R.B.G, M.E.F.L and B.L.G. analyzed the data; B.M. wrote the paper; S.M.L.S., R.B.G. and H.B.E. substantially edited the paper; J.M.H., B.B., and H.B.E. contributed substantial materials and resources.
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All procedures for Wyoming samples conformed to the protocols as approved by the National Park Service IACUC committee. Permit # IMR_GRTE_Bedrosian_GreatGreyOwl_2017.A3.
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Supplementary file1 (PDF 151 kb) Appendix Fig. 1 Principal component analysis of 39 individuals from WY (n=28) and ID (n=11) based on 4,817 SNPs. The first 2 PC axes explain 10.8% of the variation. Subsequent PC axes were 4.8%, 4.3%, 4.0% and 3.9% but did not show any further separation between the 2 locations.
10592_2020_1280_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
Supplementary file2 (PDF 363 kb) Appendix Fig. 2 Optimal K using ΔK and the log probability of K for (a) all individuals shows K = 3 as the highest value (b) subset of Oregon and California shows K = 2 (ΔK) or K = 3 (LnP(K)) as the best value. (c) subset of Oregon shows K = 2 as the best value.
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Mendelsohn, B., Bedrosian, B., Love Stowell, S.M. et al. Population genomic diversity and structure at the discontinuous southern range of the Great Gray Owl in North America. Conserv Genet 21, 693–706 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-020-01280-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-020-01280-8