The Journal of Heredity 2002:93(6)
© 2002 The American Genetic Association 93:389-399
The Effect of Differential Reproductive Success on Population Genetic Structure: Correlations of Life History With Matrilines in Humpback Whales of the Gulf of Maine
From the Molecular Systematics Laboratory, American Museum of Natural History, 79th Street and CPW, New York, NY 10024 (Rosenbaum and DeSalle); Wildlife Conservation Society, Science Resource Center 2300 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY 10460 (Rosenbaum); Whale Center of New England, P.O. Box 159, Gloucester, MA 01931 (Weinrich); USDA Forest Service, Northeast Research Station, P.O. Box 267, Irvine, PA 16329 (Stoleson); State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 350 Illick Hall, Syracuse, NY 13210 (Gibbs); and Ecology and Evolution Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand (Baker).
Address correspondence to H. C. Rosenbaum, Wildlife Conservation Society, Science Resource Center, 2300 Southern Blvd., Bronx, NY 10460, or e-mail: hrosenbaum{at}wcs.org.
To examine whether demographic and life-history traits are correlated with genetic structure, we contrasted mtDNA lineages of individual humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) with sighting and reproductive histories of female humpback whales between 1979 and 1995. Maternal lineage haplotypes were obtained for 323 whales, either from direct sequencing of the mtDNA control region (n = 159) or inferred from known relationships along matrilines from the sequenced sample of individuals (n = 164). Sequence variation in the 550 bp of the control region defined a total of 19 maternal lineage haplotypes that formed two main clades. Fecundity increased significantly over the study period among females of several lineages among the two clades. Individual maternal lineages and other clades were characterized by significant variation in fecundity. The detected heterogeneity of reproductive success has the potential to substantially affect the frequency and distribution of maternal lineages found in this population over time. There were significant yearly effects on adult resighting rates and calf survivorship based on examination of sighting histories with varying capture-recapture probability models. These results indicate that population structure can be influenced by interactions or associations between reproductive success, genetic structure, and environmental factors in a natural population of long-lived mammals.
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