Climate impacts on transocean dispersal and habitat in gray whales from the Pleistocene to 2100 |
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| Authors: | S Elizabeth Alter Matthias Meyer Klaas Post Paul Czechowski Peter Gravlund Cork Gaines Howard C Rosenbaum Kristin Kaschner Samuel T Turvey Johannes van der Plicht Beth Shapiro Michael Hofreiter |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Biology, York College, City University of New York, Jamaica, NY, USA;2. CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA;3. American Museum of Natural History, Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, New York, NY, USA;4. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany;5. Natural History Museum Rotterdam, Rotterdam, the Netherlands;6. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA, Australia;7. Den Bl? Planet, National Aquarium Denmark, Kastrup, Denmark;8. Wildlife Conservation Society, Global Conservation Program‐Ocean Giants Program, Bronx, NY, USA;9. Department of Biometry & Environmental Systems Analysis, Albert‐Ludwigs‐University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany;10. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, UK;11. Center for Isotope Research, Groningen University, Groningen, the Netherlands;12. Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands;13. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA;14. Department of Biology, University of York, Heslington, York, UK;15. Faculty for Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany |
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| Abstract: | Arctic animals face dramatic habitat alteration due to ongoing climate change. Understanding how such species have responded to past glacial cycles can help us forecast their response to today's changing climate. Gray whales are among those marine species likely to be strongly affected by Arctic climate change, but a thorough analysis of past climate impacts on this species has been complicated by lack of information about an extinct population in the Atlantic. While little is known about the history of Atlantic gray whales or their relationship to the extant Pacific population, the extirpation of the Atlantic population during historical times has been attributed to whaling. We used a combination of ancient and modern DNA, radiocarbon dating and predictive habitat modelling to better understand the distribution of gray whales during the Pleistocene and Holocene. Our results reveal that dispersal between the Pacific and Atlantic was climate dependent and occurred both during the Pleistocene prior to the last glacial period and the early Holocene immediately following the opening of the Bering Strait. Genetic diversity in the Atlantic declined over an extended interval that predates the period of intensive commercial whaling, indicating this decline may have been precipitated by Holocene climate or other ecological causes. These first genetic data for Atlantic gray whales, particularly when combined with predictive habitat models for the year 2100, suggest that two recent sightings of gray whales in the Atlantic may represent the beginning of the expansion of this species' habitat beyond its currently realized range. |
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| Keywords: | ancient DNA climate change last glacial maximum marine mammal |
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