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The Herring Gull Complex (Larus argentatus - fuscus - cachinnans) as a Model Group for Recent Holarctic Vertebrate Radiations

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Abstract

Under what circumstances speciation in sexually reproducing animals can occur without geographical disjunction is still controversial. According to the ring species model, a reproductive barrier may arise through “isolation-by-distance” when peripheral populations of a species meet after expanding around some uninhabitable barrier. The classical example for this kind of speciation is the herring gull (Larus argentatus) complex with a circumpolar distribution in the northern hemisphere. An analysis of mitochondrial DNA variation among 21 gull taxa indicated that members of this complex differentiated largely in allopatry following multiple vicariance and long-distance colonization events, not primarily through “isolation-by-distance”.

In a recent approach, we applied nuclear intron sequences and AFLP markers to be compared with the mitochondrial phylogeography. These markers served to reconstruct the overall phylogeny of the genus Larus and to test for the apparent biphyletic origin of two species (argentatus, hyperboreus) as well as the unexpected position of L. marinus within this complex. All three taxa are members of the herring gull radiation but experienced, to a different degree, extensive mitochondrial introgression through hybridization. The discrepancies between the mitochondrial gene tree and the taxon phylogeny based on nuclear markers are illustrated.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all colleagues who provided samples or helped during field work, the Institute of Ecology (University of Jena) for use of laboratory facilities and M. Ritz for his help with generating the AFLP profiles. M. Braun and S. Bensch made helpful comments on previous versions of this manuscript. This research was supported by two grants from the German Research Foundation to D.L.H. (LI 1049/1-1 and 1-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deutsches Meeresmuseum, Katharinenberg 14-20, 18439, Stralsund, Germany

    Dorit Liebers-Helbig & Viviane Sternkopf

  2. Department of Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, 9600, 2300 RC, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Peter de Knijff

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  1. Dorit Liebers-Helbig
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  2. Viviane Sternkopf
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  3. Andreas J. Helbig
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  4. Peter de Knijff
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Correspondence to Dorit Liebers-Helbig .

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  1. Museum für Naturkunde, Humboldt Universität Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Matthias Glaubrecht

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Liebers-Helbig, D., Sternkopf, V., Helbig, A.J., de Knijff, P. (2010). The Herring Gull Complex (Larus argentatus - fuscus - cachinnans) as a Model Group for Recent Holarctic Vertebrate Radiations. In: Glaubrecht, M. (eds) Evolution in Action. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12425-9_17

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