Taxonomic status of Buller’s Albatross

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Michael Szabo
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Taxonomic status of Buller’s Albatross

Postby Michael Szabo » Wed Aug 25, 2021 9:33 am

"These results indicate that an asynchronous breeding season likely limits gene flow between Northern and Southern Buller’s Albatross and have important implications for the taxonomic status of Buller’s Albatrosses."

Genetic connectivity in allopatric seabirds: lack of inferred gene flow between Northern and Southern Buller’s albatross populations (Thalassarche bulleri ssp.)
Jana R. Wold, Christopher J. R. Robertson, Geoffrey K. Chambers, Tracey Van Stijn & Peter A. Ritchie.

Emu - Austral Ornithology
Volume 121, 2021 - Issue 1-2: Special issue: Conservation Genetics: Showcasing Applications in Austral Birds.

ABSTRACT: The Buller’s albatross species complex is composed of two asynchronously breeding subspecies, the Northern Buller’s albatross (Thalassarche bulleri platei) and Southern Buller’s albatross (Thalassarche bulleri bulleri). The aim of this study was to test for genetic differentiation between Northern and Southern Buller’s albatross and to reassess genetic connectivity between these populations. Genotyping-by-Sequencing (GBS) was used to estimate gene flow and genome-wide divergence using 13 T. b. platei and 40 T. b. bulleri samples. The STACKS de novo and reference guided pipelines were used to call single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for three data sets: one each for Northern and Southern Buller’s and a third for both taxa together. The number of SNPs in each de novo data set was relatively consistent from 12,148 to 11,898 for Northern and Southern Buller’s albatross collections, respectively. A random subsample of 1000 SNPs from each of the two groups indicated that mean per-site nucleotide diversity and heterozygosity were slightly higher for Northern Buller’s albatross (π = 0.335; HE = 0.322) than for either of the two Southern Buller’s albatross breeding colonies (π = 0.286 and 0.294; HE = 0.275 and 0.288). Both STRUCTURE and discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) consistently showed differentiated clusters corresponding to Northern and Southern Buller’s but did not resolve population structure among Southern Buller’s breeding populations. These results indicate that an asynchronous breeding season likely limits gene flow between Northern and Southern Buller’s albatross and have important implications for the taxonomic status of Buller’s albatrosses.

Link to paper: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 21.1894406
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Ian Southey
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Re: Taxonomic status of Buller’s Albatross

Postby Ian Southey » Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:33 pm

Sadly most of that abstract is meaningless to me and the paper's on the wrong side of the paywall but the title suggests no detectable gene flow between the two subspecies so shouldn't that actually make them species?

Ian
Colin Miskelly
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Re: Taxonomic status of Buller’s Albatross

Postby Colin Miskelly » Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:55 am

Kia ora Ian

If absence of gene flow is sufficient grounds to recognise two populations as separate species, wouldn't that mean that we should recognise all bird species introduced to New Zealand from Europe or elsewhere as new species?

Ngā mihi
Colin
Ian Southey
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Re: Taxonomic status of Buller’s Albatross

Postby Ian Southey » Wed Sep 01, 2021 8:35 am

Colin

If someone does the work and finds that clear differences have already evolved here that would be quite correct and, over longer periods of time, it seems more likely that it will become true. With these mollymawks we already think they look different so it looks like all of the necessary work may have been done - but I haven't been able to read it in full yet.

Ian

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