Abstract
Human activity has led to severe bottlenecks in many wildlife species in the recent past. This usually increases the strength of genetic drift, leading to loss of genetic variation. Gene flow may however counteract the genetic consequences of small population size. Using 11 of 38 tested microsatellite loci and five moose populations in eastern Poland, we investigated the effects of two phenomena: bottlenecks that occurred in the nineteenth century and the first half of twentieth century, and admixture after moose populations expanded demographically and spatially in eastern Poland after the Second World War. The statistical tests indicated a recent bottleneck in all the studied samples with respect to H E and low Garza–Williamson index values. The Biebrza population, which consists of autochthonous moose representing a branch of the Central Europe mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) clade and immigrants belonging to the Ural clade, is one of the most variable populations of this species. AMOVA, PCA, and STRUCTURE analyses all revealed significant population structuring, with most probable existence of K = 2 genetically distinct clusters that exhibited a relatively high level of admixture. Analysis of recent dispersal rates demonstrated that population from the Biebrza Valley may supply individuals to the other four studied moose populations. We also found female-biased sex ratio in nonharvested moose populations inhabiting eastern Poland.
Highlights
Knowledge of genetic structure is an essential element of wildlife management and conservation (Haanes et al 2011)
Eight (21 %) of the 38 analyzed ungulate microsatellite primers gave no amplification in moose samples: BM861, INRA124, INRA189, INRA35, IOBT965, MM12, UMN2001, and UMN2404 (Table 5S1 and Table 6S2)
The mean number of alleles per locus was 10.27, ranging from 2 to 14. These features demonstrate that the microsatellite loci used in this study are a good tool for studying genetic structure in A. alces
Summary
Knowledge of genetic structure is an essential element of wildlife management and conservation (Haanes et al 2011). Some reports suggest that moose had died out in Poland by 1830 (Schmölcke and Zachos 2005), but it is very likely that up to the twentieth century, it did survive in a few scattered areas of Poland (Dzięciołowski and Pielowski 1993). One such area was the Biebrza marshes in northeastern Poland (Brincken 1826; Gębczyńska and Raczyński 2004). Between 10 and 20 individuals survived this period in the Biebrza River Valley; they formed the founding group for the present-day moose population in this region of Poland
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