Phylogeography of a vanishing North American songbird: The Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2011
Publication Title
Conservation Genetics
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Volume
12
Issue
6
First page number:
1395
Last page number:
1410
Abstract
The breeding distribution of Painted Buntings (Passerina ciris) is comprised of two allopatric populations separated by a 550-km distributional gap in the southeastern United States. Curiously, the boundary between the two recognized P. ciris subspecies does not separate the two allopatric breeding populations but instead runs roughly through the center of the interior population. Genetic relationships among these subspecies, and the allopatric breeding populations of Painted Bunting, have not been assessed. Given the recent decline in overall abundance of this species, such an assessment is warranted. We sampled birds from 15 localities (138 individuals) and identified 35 distinct haplotypes, six belonging to the Atlantic Coast population and 26 to the interior population, with three shared by both populations. AMOVA results showed that a significantly greater portion of the total genetic variance is explained when grouping birds by the interior and Atlantic Coast populations rather than by subspecies. Furthermore, our data indicate that the Atlantic Coast and interior populations represent independently evolving taxa, with no measurable gene flow between them. Although recently diverged (26,000–115,000 years ago), these isolated bunting populations represent incipient species. For development of conservation strategies, we suggest that the Atlantic Coast and interior populations be recognized as separate management units.
Keywords
Animal population genetics; Conservation biology; Painted Bunting; Passerina ciris; Phylogeography
Controlled Subject
Bird populations; Phylogeography; Wildlife conservation
Disciplines
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Ornithology | Population Biology
File Format
File Size
508 KB
Language
English
Permissions
Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited
Rights
IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Repository Citation
Herr, C. A.,
Sykes, P. W.,
Klicka, J.
(2011).
Phylogeography of a vanishing North American songbird: The Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris).
Conservation Genetics, 12(6),
1395-1410.
Available at: