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Conservation genetics of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, in eastern and central North Atlantic

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Abstract

We examined polymorphism at 12 microsatelliteloci in 807 harbour porpoises , Phocoenaphocoena, collected from throughout thecentral and eastern North Atlantic to theBaltic Sea. Multilocus tests for allelefrequency differences, assignment tests,population structure estimates (FST) andgenetic distance measures (DLR andDC) all indicate six geneticallydifferentiated populations/sub-populationsafter pooling sub-samples within regions.Harbour porpoises from West Greenland, theNorwegian Westcoast, Ireland, the British NorthSea, the Danish North Sea and the inland watersof Denmark (IDW) are all geneticallydistinguishable from each other. A sample ofharbour porpoises collected off the Dutch coast(mainly during winter) was geneticallyheterogeneous and likely comprised a mixture ofindividuals of diverse origin. A mixed stockanalysis indicated that most of the individualsin this sample (∼77%) were likely migrantsfrom the British and Danish North Sea.

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Author notes

  1. Liselotte Wesley Andersen

    Present address: National Environmental Research Institute, Dept. of Coastal Zone Ecology, Kalø, Grenåvej 12, DK-8410, Rønde, Denmark

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, Dept. of Inland fisheries, Vejlsøvej 39, 8600, Silkeborg, Denmark

    Liselotte Wesley Andersen & Daniel E. Ruzzante

  2. Sea Mammal Research Unit, Gatty Marine Laboratory, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, KY 168LB, United Kingdom

    Michael Walton

  3. Dept. of Zoology, University of Stockholm, S-106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Per Berggren

  4. Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway

    Arne Bjørge

  5. Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, Charlottenlund Slot, 2920, Charlottenlund, Denmark

    Christina Lockyer

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  1. Liselotte Wesley Andersen
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Correspondence to Liselotte Wesley Andersen.

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Andersen, L.W., Ruzzante, D.E., Walton, M. et al. Conservation genetics of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, in eastern and central North Atlantic. Conservation Genetics 2, 309–324 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012534212853

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