Editor´s Choice - Colonization pathways of the northeast Atlantic by northern fulmars

Submitted by avianbiology on 9 May 2014.

The fulmar Fulmarus glacialis has expanded greatly in the North Atlantic during the recent 350 years, as compiled and analyzed from faunistic historical literature by James Fisher. This expansion may have started from either or both of the two oldest breeding colonies, at St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides and Grimsey at Iceland. Based on the geographic colonization pattern James Fisher suggested that the expansion was driven by birds emigrating from Iceland. Recent phylogeographic studies based on modern mtDNA samples from birds breeding in different colonies did not support the “out of Iceland” hypothesis. However, historic samples of fulmar may show the expansion pattern more clearly, and in this study the genetic signals from fulmars in museum collections (collected between 1868 and 1939) have been investigated. Even if the results are still not fully conclusive, interesting new patterns emerge, e.g. indicating a change in genetic diversity at St Kilda during the recent century which may be the result of immigration from other colonies which in turn have their roots from emigrants from Iceland. This stresses the value and usefulness of museum collections allowing the dimension of time to be incorporated into phylogenetic analyses in a very fascinating way.

Thomas Alerstam, Editor in Chief

Like all our Editor´s Choice articles youc an read this paper for free:

http://www.avianbiology.org/article/colonization-pathways-northeast-atla... http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2013.00262.x/abst...

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