Molecular markers provide insights into contemporary and historic gene flow for a non‐migratory species

Abstract

Hairy woodpeckers Picoides villosus are a common, year round resident with distinct plumage and morphological variation across North America. We genotyped 335 individuals at six variable microsatellite loci and analyzed 322 mtDNA control region sequences in order to examine the role of contemporary and historical barriers to gene flow. In addition we combined genetic analyses with ecological niche modelling to test if hairy woodpeckers were isolated in northern refugia (Alaska, Newfoundland and the Queen Charlotte Islands) during the last glacial maximum. Genetic analyses revealed that gene flow among North American hairy woodpecker populations is restricted, but not to the extent predicted for a sedentary species. Populations clustered into two main genetic groups, east and west of the Great Plains in the south and the Rocky Mountains in the north. Contact zones between the two main genetic groups exist in central British Columbia and Washington, but are narrow. Within each group we found additional population structure with genetic breaks between subgroups in the geographic west corresponding to breaks in forested habitat and physical barriers like open expanses of water. Population genetic patterns for hairy woodpeckers have resulted from isolation in multiple southern refugia with the current distribution of genetic groups resulting from post‐glacial expansion and subsequent reduction in gene flow. While populations in Alaska, Newfoundland and the Queen Charlotte Islands are genetically distinct from other populations, we found no evidence of these areas acting as refugia throughout the Pleistocene. Atlantic Canada populations contained unique haplotypes raising the possibility of a separate colonization from the rest of eastern Canada. The endemic subspecies on the island of Newfoundland is not genetically distinct from their closest mainland population unlike the Queen Charlotte Island subspecies.