The Beringian Coevolution Project: holistic collections of mammals and associated parasites reveal novel perspectives on evolutionary and environmental change in the North

Joseph A Cook,Jonathan L Dunnum,Jocelyn P Colella,Kayce C Bell,Batsaikhan Nyamsuren,Mariel L Campbell,Jon Martin,Robert Mulders,Vasyl V Tkach,Stephen E Greiman,Dianna Krejsa,Andrew G Hope,Jackson S Whitman,Schuyler Liphardt,Thomas S Jung,Heikki Henttonen,Sandra L Talbot,Voitto Haukisalmi,Ralph P Eckerlin,Natalie G Dawson,Kurt E Galbreath,Eric P Hoberg,Anson V Koehler,Bryan S Mclean,Jason L Malaney,Vadim B Fedorov ,Stephen O Macdonald ,А А Цветкова ,Susan Kutz ,Suzanne Carrière ,Donavan J Jackson ,Genevieve M S Haas ,Heather Toman ,John Kinsella ,Arseny A Makarikov ,Eric Waltari

doi:10.1139/as-2016-0042

Abstract

The Beringian Coevolution Project (BCP), a field program underway in the high northern latitudes since 1999, has focused on building key scientific infrastructure for integrated specimen-based studies on mammals and their associated parasites. BCP has contributed new insights across temporal and spatial scales into how ancient climate and environmental change have shaped faunas, emphasizing processes of assembly, persistence, and diversification across the vast Beringian region. BCP collections also represent baseline records of biotic diversity from across the northern high latitudes at a time of accelerated environmental change. These specimens and associated data form an unmatched resource for identifying hidden diversity, interpreting past responses to climate oscillations, documenting contemporary conditions, and anticipating outcomes for complex biological systems in a regime of ecological perturbation. Because of its dual focus on hosts and parasites, the BCP record also provides a foundation for comparative analyses that can document the effects of dynamic change on the geographic distribution, transmission dynamics, and emergence of pathogens. By using specific examples from carnivores, eulipotyphlans, lagomorphs, rodents, ungulates, and their associated parasites, we demonstrate how broad, integrated field collections provide permanent infrastructure that informs policy decisions regarding human impact and the effect of climate change on natural populations.

Highlights

The Arctic is experiencing pronounced environmental perturbation driven by accelerating climate warming and related anthropogenic forces (ACIA 2005; Hansen et al 2010; IPPC 2013; Meltofte et al 2013; Arctic Council 2016)
Field collections completed under the Beringian Coevolution Project (BCP) and related projects resulted in 53 043 mammal specimens and in excess of 14 000 lots of endoparasites and ectoparasites collected from 8761 localities (Fig. 1)
BCP field collections coupled with molecular methods and new theoretical and analytical approaches in population genetics, genomics, and systematics are yielding novel insights into biogeographic history, enabling tests of earlier concepts about this northern crossroads and generating new hypotheses of dispersal and diversification across the region

Summary

Introduction

The Arctic is experiencing pronounced environmental perturbation driven by accelerating climate warming and related anthropogenic forces (ACIA 2005; Hansen et al 2010; IPPC 2013; Meltofte et al 2013; Arctic Council 2016). Phylogeographic analyses based on broad BCP sampling are revealing concordant zones of genetic differentiation (Fig. 5) that help interpret the impact of the boundaries of the Beringian refugium, such as the Upper Kolyma region of Siberia in the west (e.g., Galbreath and Cook 2004; Kohli et al 2015; Haukisalmi et al 2016) and near the Yukon– Alaska border in the east (Dawson et al 2014).

Results

Conclusion