title: King penguin demography since the last glaciation inferred from genome-wide data.
abstract: How natural climate cycles, such as past glacial/interglacial patterns, have shaped species distributions at the high-latitude regions of the Southern Hemisphere is still largely unclear. Here, we show how the post-glacial warming following the Last Glacial Maximum (ca 18 000 years ago), allowed the (re)colonization of the fragmented sub-Antarctic habitat by an upper-level marine predator, the king penguin Aptenodytes patagonicus. Using restriction site-associated DNA sequencing and standard mitochondrial data, we tested the behaviour of subsets of anonymous nuclear loci in inferring past demography through coalescent-based and allele frequency spectrum analyses. Our results show that the king penguin population breeding on Crozet archipelago steeply increased in size, closely following the Holocene warming recorded in the Epica Dome C ice core. The following population growth can be explained by a threshold model in which the ecological requirements of this species (year-round ice-free habitat for breeding and access to a major source of food such as the Antarctic Polar Front) were met on Crozet soon after the Pleistocene/Holocene climatic transition.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, Oslo 0316, Norway emiliano.trucchi@ibv.uio.no.
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Trucchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Rome 'Tor Vergata', Via della Ricerca Scientifica, Rome 00133, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gratton
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, Oslo 0316, Norway Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Physiologie et Ethologie, Université de Strasbourg, 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 7178 and LIA-647 BioSensib), 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France Centre Scientifique de Monaco (LIA-647 BioSensib), 8 Quai Antoine 1er, Monaco 98000, Principality of Monaco.
authors.forename: Jason D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Whittington
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, Oslo 0316, Norway Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Physiologie et Ethologie, Université de Strasbourg, 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 7178 and LIA-647 BioSensib), 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France Centre Scientifique de Monaco (LIA-647 BioSensib), 8 Quai Antoine 1er, Monaco 98000, Principality of Monaco.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cristofari
authors.affiliation: Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Physiologie et Ethologie, Université de Strasbourg, 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 7178 and LIA-647 BioSensib), 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France.
authors.forename: Yvon
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Le Maho
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, Oslo 0316, Norway.
authors.forename: Nils Chr
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Stenseth
authors.affiliation: Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, PO Box 1066, Blindern, Oslo 0316, Norway Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Physiologie et Ethologie, Université de Strasbourg, 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (UMR 7178 and LIA-647 BioSensib), 23 Rue Becquerel, Strasbourg Cedex 02 67087, France Centre Scientifique de Monaco (LIA-647 BioSensib), 8 Quai Antoine 1er, Monaco 98000, Principality of Monaco.
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Le Bohec
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000864:Antarctic Regions; D030161:Avian Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D057231:Climate Change; D016678:Genome; D007195:Indian Ocean Islands; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011157:Population Dynamics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D046429:Spheniscidae / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D030161:Avian Proteins; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins
keywords: Antarctica; Last Glacial Maximum; coalescence; restriction site-associated DNA sequencing; seabirds