Líffræðifélag Íslands
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2015
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster V62
Derek Barisas, Julien Amouret, Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson, Ron Summers, and Snæbjörn Pálsson
Háskóli Íslands, Líf og umhverfisvísindadeild
Kynnir / Presenter: Snæbjörn Pálsson
Tengiliður / Corresponding author: Snæbjörn Pálsson (snaebj@hi.is)
The Icelandic Purple Sandpiper Calidris maritima littoralis represents one member of a poorly understood subspecies complex. Currently, mean differences in morphology define two other subspecies, C. m. belcheri, which breeds in northeastern Canada along the Hudson Bay and James Bay, and C. m. maritima, which breeds along the Arctic coasts elsewhere in northern Canada, Greenland, Svalbard, and Scandinavia to northcentral Siberia. As a circumpolar breeding bird, the Purple Sandpiper provides an interesting perspective on the evolutionary changes following an expansion of a species northward since the last glacial period of Ice Age. Considering the extent of the icesheet in the northern hemisphere during the last glacial period and the short period there after, correct attribution of subspecies status within the Purple Sandpiper may either reflect a rapid diversification or an ancestral split of distinct evolutionary lineages which survived in isolation at southern latitudes. Applying a morphometric subspecies criteria, the Amadon‘s Rule, and genetic analysis of five nuclear introns and the mtDNA markers, CO1 and ND2, to geographically diverse breeding populations clarified the subspecies attribution of the Icelandic population. Low levels of genetic divergence does not support the current subspecies classification but indicate a recent morphological differentiation of the Icelandic population from a shared refugia.