Population range expansions and contractions as a response to climate and habitat change throughout the Quaternary are known to have contributed to complex phylogenetic and population genetic events. Speciation patterns and processes in Palearctic buzzards (genus Buteo) are a long-standing example of morphological and genetic data incongruence, attributed to panmixia, habitat range shifts, contact zones, and climate change. Here we assess the systematics, phylogeography and population genetic structure of three nominal species of Palearctic buzzards, Buteo buteo (including B. b. vulpinus), B. rufinus (including B. r. cirtensis) and B. hemilasius. Phylogenetic analyses inferred from mitochondrial data recover B. hemilasius as sister to the sister clades B. r. rufinus and B. buteo complex (B. b. buteo, B. b. vulpinus, but also including B. r. cirtensis). In contrast, we find an unresolved genetic delimitation inferred from four nuclear loci, suggesting an ancestral genetic pool for all species. Time-trees suggest population contractions and expansions throughout the Pleistocene, which likely reflect habitat change and contrasting ecological niche requirements between species. Microsatellite-based extended Bayesian skyline plots reveal relatively constant population sizes for B. hemilasius, B. r. rufinus, and B. b. vulpinus, in contrast to a dramatic population expansion in B. r. cirtensis within the last 3 kya. Overall, our study illustrates how complex population processes over the Late Pleistocene have shaped the patterns of genetic divergence in Palearctic buzzards, due to the joint effects of shared ancestral polymorphisms, population expansions and contractions, with hybridization at contact zones leading to admixture and introgression.
1.Univ Porto, Ctr Invest Biodiversidade & Recursos Genet, CIBIO InBIO, Campus Vairao, P-4485661 Vairao, Portugal 2.Univ Toronto, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, 25 Willcocks, Toronto, ON M5S 3B2, Canada 3.Sibecocenter LLC, POB 547, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia 4.Natl Acad Sci Belarus, Lab Mol Zool, Acad Skaya 27, Minsk 220072, BELARUS 5.Mohammed V Univ Rabat, Sci Inst, Geobiodivers & Nat Heritage Lab, Ave Ibn Battouta,BP 709, Rabat 10090, Morocco 6.RIAS, Wildlife Rehabil & Res Ctr, Olhao, Portugal 7.Natl Agrarian & Vet Res Inst IP, Quinta Marques, P-2780159 Oeiras, Portugal 8.Univ Porto, Fac Ciencias, Dept Biol, Rua Campo Alegre S-N, P-4169007 Porto, Portugal 9.Univ Johannesburg, Dept Zool, POB 534, ZA-2006 Auckland Pk, South Africa 10.Univ Lisbon, Inst Super Agron, Ctr Invest Biodiversidade & Recursos Genet, CIBIO InBIO, Lisbon, Portugal
Recommended Citation:
Jowers, Michael J.,Sanchez-Ramirez, Santiago,Lopes, Susana,et al. Unravelling population processes over the Late Pleistocene driving contemporary genetic divergence in Palearctic buzzards[J]. MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION,2019-01-01,134:269-281