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1 December 2008 Genetic characteristics of the Black-footed Albatross Diomedea nigripes on the Bonin Islands and their implications for the species' demographic history and population structure
Masaki Eda, Kazuto Kawakami, Hayato Chiba, Hajime Suzuki, Kazuo Horikoshi, Hiroko Koike
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Abstract

The Black-footed Albatross Diomedea nigripes is an endangered seabird that is endemic to the North Pacific. The genetic structure of Black-footed Albatross populations on three of the Hawaiian Islands and on Izu-Torishima Island, Japan, has been studied previously, using the mitochondrial cytochrome b region. Hawaiian and Japanese breeding groups are genetically different, and the genetic diversity of the birds on Izu-Torishima is lower than that of birds in the Hawaiian Islands. We analyzed 50 Black-footed Albatrosses from the Bonin Islands, where a relatively stable population persisted throughout the twentieth century. Although albatrosses in the Bonin Islands do not differ significantly from those on Izu-Torishima in their cytochrome b region sequences, they do exhibit higher genetic diversity (as high as those from the Hawaiian colonies). A statistical parsimony network revealed two clades, one primarily in the western North Pacific colonies and the other primarily in eastern North Pacific colonies. The total network appears as a dumbbell-shaped phylogeny, suggesting recent population expansion in both populations, although the population breeding in the western North Pacific is only about 5% of the size of that in the eastern North Pacific. Our results suggest that Black-footed Albatrosses in the Bonin and the Hawaiian Islands differ genetically but are comparable natural biological units for conservation and management purposes.

Masaki Eda, Kazuto Kawakami, Hayato Chiba, Hajime Suzuki, Kazuo Horikoshi, and Hiroko Koike "Genetic characteristics of the Black-footed Albatross Diomedea nigripes on the Bonin Islands and their implications for the species' demographic history and population structure," Ornithological Science 7(2), 109-116, (1 December 2008). https://doi.org/10.2326/1347-0558-7.2.109
Received: 8 November 2007; Accepted: 27 March 2008; Published: 1 December 2008
KEYWORDS
Black-footed Albatross
Bonin Islands
cytochrome b
Diomedea nigripes
population structure
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