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Eco-Evolutionary Processes Generating Diversity Among Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, Populations off Baja California, Mexico

Segura-García, Iris; Rojo-Arreola, Liliana; Rocha-Olivares, Axayácatl; Heckel, Gisela; Gallo-Reynoso, Juan Pablo; Hoelzel, Rus

Eco-Evolutionary Processes Generating Diversity Among Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, Populations off Baja California, Mexico Thumbnail


Authors

Iris Segura-García

Liliana Rojo-Arreola

Axayácatl Rocha-Olivares

Gisela Heckel

Juan Pablo Gallo-Reynoso



Abstract

For highly mobile species that nevertheless show fine-scale patterns of population genetic structure, the relevant evolutionary mechanisms determining structure remain poorly understood. The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is one such species, exhibiting complex patterns of genetic structure associated with local habitat dependence in various geographic regions. Here we studied bottlenose dolphin populations in the Gulf of California and Pacific Ocean off Baja California where habitat is highly structured to test associations between ecology, habitat dependence and genetic differentiation. We investigated population structure at a fine geographic scale using both stable isotope analysis (to assess feeding ecology) and molecular genetic markers (to assess population structure). Our results show that there are at least two factors affecting population structure for both genetics and feeding ecology (as indicated by stable isotope profiles). On the one hand there is a signal for the differentiation of individuals by ecotype, one foraging more offshore than the other. At the same time, there is differentiation between the Gulf of California and the west coast of Baja California, meaning that for example, nearshore ecotypes were both genetically and isotopically differentiated either side of the peninsula. We discuss these data in the context of similar studies showing fine-scale population structure for delphinid species in coastal waters, and consider possible evolutionary mechanisms.

Citation

Segura-García, I., Rojo-Arreola, L., Rocha-Olivares, A., Heckel, G., Gallo-Reynoso, J. P., & Hoelzel, R. (2018). Eco-Evolutionary Processes Generating Diversity Among Bottlenose Dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, Populations off Baja California, Mexico. Evolutionary Biology, 45(2), 223-236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-018-9445-z

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 9, 2018
Online Publication Date Jan 29, 2018
Publication Date Jun 1, 2018
Deposit Date Jan 31, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Evolutionary Biology
Print ISSN 0071-3260
Electronic ISSN 1934-2845
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 45
Issue 2
Pages 223-236
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-018-9445-z

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © The Author(s) 2018.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.






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