Conservation genetics of harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, in eastern and central North Atlantic

摘要

We examined polymorphism at 12 microsatellite loci in 807 harbour porpoises, Phocoena phocoena, collected from throughout the central and eastern North Atlantic to the Baltic Sea. Multilocus tests for allele frequency differences, assignment tests, population structure estimates (F_(ST)) and genetic distance measures (D_(LR) and D_C) all indicate six genetically differentiated populations/sub-populations after pooling sub-samples within regions. Harbour porpoises from West Greenland, the Norwegian Westcoast, Ireland, the British North Sea, the Danish North Sea and the inland waters of Denmark (IDW) are all genetically distinguishable from each other. A sample of harbour porpoises collected off the Dutch coast (mainly during winter) was genetically heterogeneous and likely comprised a mixture of individuals of diverse origin. A mixed stock analysis indicated that most of the individuals in this sample (～77%) were likely migrants from the British and Danish North Sea.