Seabird Geographic Variation: Similarity Among Populations of Leach's Storm-Petrel

Abstract

Abstract We assessed geographic variation in 13 locality samples of Leach's Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa), 12 from the Pacific coast and 1 from the Atlantic coast of North America. Nine phenetic characters were used with canonical variates analysis to determine similarity among samples. Regression of phenetic distance on geographic distance measured the relation between similarity and interisland distance. We found a clinal pattern of population similarity from the Aleutian Islands in the north to the Farallon Islands in the south. Populations from Los Coronados and San Benitos islands make up a distinct subset when rump color and wing and tail shape indices are included in the analysis, but these populations were part of a dominant clinal trend when only five size characters were used. On Guadalupe Island separate populations breed in summer and winter; these are strongly differentiated from the others and from each other. The North Atlantic sample was aligned closely with that from the Aleutians. The degree of geographic variation was roughly similar to that in certain migratory land birds on the North American continent, but is less than what is found for certain nonmigratory land birds on islands. Our results suggest recognizing four subspecies of Leach's Storm-Petrel in the study area, including two on Guadalupe Island isolated by time of breeding.