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In Search of Phylogeographic Patterns in the Northeastern Atlantic and Adjacent Seas

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Evolutionary Biology: Genome Evolution, Speciation, Coevolution and Origin of Life

Abstract

We reviewed 54 studies on teleost fishes and crustaceans inhabiting European waters to test for the emergence of phylogeographic patterns. Concerning latitudinal variation of genetic diversity, we found that: (1) contrary to the predictions of the “central-margin hypothesis,” only a minority of species (~10 %) revealed higher genetic diversity in the center of their distribution; (2) approximately a third of the fish had a peak of genetic diversity at their southern limit; (3) another substantial fraction of species (41 % for fishes and 72 % for crustaceans) showed little or no latitudinal variation of genetic diversity. Genetic structure expressed by significant FSTs varied widely among species from cases where Atlantic, North Sea, and the Mediterranean seem to correspond to distinct populations, to others where no structure could be detected across their entire range. Given the heterogeneity in sampling schemes we suggest that regular sampling across entire species ranges can improve our understanding of the marine phylogeography in Europe.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    www.webofknowledge.com/.

  2. 2.

    Fish Base (ed, by Froese R, Pauly D). Digital resource available at www.fishbase.org.

  3. 3.

    WoRMS—World Register of Marine Species (eds by Appeltans W, Bouchet P, Boxshall GA, De Broyer C, de Voogd NJ, Gordon DP, Hoeksema BW, Horton T, Kennedy M, Mees J, Poore GCB, Read G, Stöhr S, Walter TC, Costello MJ). Digital resource available at www.marinespecies.org.

  4. 4.

    www.biology.duke.edu/corona/.

  5. 5.

    http://fishpoptrace.jrc.ec.europa.eu/.

  6. 6.

    http://biocongroup.eu/MarinEra/Welcome.html.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the Eco-Ethology Research Unit’ Strategic Plan (PEst-OE/MAR/UI0331/2011)—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - FCT (partially FEDER funded). SMF was supported by an FCT grant (SFRH/BPD/84923/2012).

We dedicate this chapter in loving memory of Vítor Almada whose tragic loss we suffered during the course of this work.

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Francisco, S.M., Robalo, J.I., Levy, A., Almada, V.C. (2014). In Search of Phylogeographic Patterns in the Northeastern Atlantic and Adjacent Seas. In: Pontarotti, P. (eds) Evolutionary Biology: Genome Evolution, Speciation, Coevolution and Origin of Life. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07623-2_15

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