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Pleistocene expansion, anthropogenic pressure and ocean currents: Disentangling the past and ongoing evolutionary history of Patella aspera Röding, 1798 in the archipelago of Madeira
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  • Ricardo Sousa,
  • Joana Vasconcelos,
  • Iván Vera-Escalona,
  • Ana Rita Pinto,
  • Stephen Hawkins,
  • Mafalda Freitas,
  • Joao Delgado,
  • José A. González,
  • RODRIGO RIERA
Ricardo Sousa
Observatório Oceânico da Madeira, Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação Tecnologia e Inovação (OOM/ARDITI), Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (MARE), Quinta do Lorde Marina, Sítio da Piedade Caniçal, Madeira Island, Portugal, Direção de Serviços de Monitorização, Estudos e Investigação do Mar (DSEIMar), Direção Regional do Mar, 9004-562 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Joana Vasconcelos
Universidade da Madeira, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Casilla 297, Concepción, Chile, Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (MARE), Quinta do Lorde Marina, Sítio da Piedade Caniçal, Madeira Island, Portugal
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Iván Vera-Escalona
Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Casilla 297, Concepción, Chile
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Ana Rita Pinto
Direção de Serviços de Monitorização, Estudos e Investigação do Mar (DSEIMar), Direção Regional do Mar, 9004-562 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
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Stephen Hawkins
Marine Biological Association of the UK, Plymouth PL1 2PB, UK , School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK
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Mafalda Freitas
Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (MARE), Quinta do Lorde Marina, Sítio da Piedade Caniçal, Madeira Island, Portugal, Direção de Serviços de Monitorização, Estudos e Investigação do Mar (DSEIMar), Direção Regional do Mar, 9004-562 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
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Joao Delgado
Direção de Serviços de Monitorização, Estudos e Investigação do Mar (DSEIMar), Direção Regional do Mar, 9004-562 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR/CIMAR), Porto, Portugal
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José A. González
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
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RODRIGO RIERA
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Departamento de Ecología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción, Casilla 297, Concepción, Chile
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Abstract

Rising sea-level following the Last Glacial Maximum lead to fragmentation of coastal limpet populations between islands of the Archipelago of Madeira. This fragmentation is reinforced by recent heavy exploitation reducing effective population size on Madeira Island. We use the limpet P. aspera to understand how the role of processes at different time scales (i.e. changes in the sea level and overexploitation) can influence the genetic composition of an extant species, relating these processes to reproductive phenology and seasonal shifts in ocean currents. Twelve microsatellite genetic markers were used. A power analysis was used to evaluate the power of the microsatellite markers to detect a signal of population differentiation. Long-term past migrations were assessed using a Bayesian Markov Montecarlo approach in the software MIGRATE-n to estimate mutation-scaled migration rates (M = m/μ; m, probability of a lineage immigrating per generation; μ, mutation rate). Two scenarios were evaluated using an Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) in the software DIYABC 2.1 (i) Scenario 1: considered a population scenario from a reduced Ne at time t3 to a higher Ne at time t2; and (ii) Scenario 2 considering a reduction of Ne from a time t3 to a time t2. Colonization of the archipelago by Portuguese settlers six centuries ago probably led to an important decrease in the genetic diversity of the species (Ne). Contemporary gene flow strongly support a pattern of high asymmetric connectivity explained by the reproductive phenology of the species and spatio-temporal seasonal changes in the ocean currents. Spatio-temporal reconstructions using Bayesian methods, including coalescent and Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) approaches, suggest changes in the migration patterns from highly symmetric to highly asymmetric connectivity with subtle population differentiation as consequence of post-glacial maximum sea level rise during the Holocene.
Dec 2021Published in Marine Environmental Research volume 172 on pages 105485. 10.1016/j.marenvres.2021.105485