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Quaternary History of an Endemic Passerine Bird on Corsica Island: Glacial Refugium and Impact of Recent Forest Regression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Jean-Claude Thibault ,
Alice Cibois ,
Roger Prodon  and
Eric Pasquet
Jean-Claude Thibault
Affiliation:
Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR7205, Département Systématique et Evolution, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Case Postale 51, 55 rue Buffon, F75005 Paris, France
Alice Cibois*
Affiliation:
Department of Mammalogy and Ornithology, Natural History Museum of Geneva, CP 6434, 1211 Geneva 6, Switzerland
Roger Prodon
Affiliation:
Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (UMR 5175), Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Biogéographie et Ecologie des Vertébrés, Campus CNRS, 1919 route de Mende, F-34293 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Eric Pasquet
Affiliation:
Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR7205, Département Systématique et Evolution, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Case Postale 51, 55 rue Buffon, F75005 Paris, France UMS MNHN/CNRS 2700 Outils et Méthodes de la Systématique Intégrative « OMSI », Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, 57 rue Cuvier, F75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
*
⁎Corresponding author. E-mail address:alice.cibois@ville-ge.ch (A. Cibois).
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Abstract

Molecular studies support the hypothesis that Corsica Island was a glacial refugium for a number of forest birds during the Pleistocene. We focused on the Corsican nuthatch (Sitta whiteheadi), an endemic passerine strongly associated with the laricio pine (Pinus nigra laricio). The range of laricio pine has been impacted by the Pleistocene glacial periods and forest has been recently fragmented by cutting and fires. Using both molecular (mitochondrial and nuclear) and morphological characters, we assessed the variation within the nuthatch population. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the Corsican nuthatch endured through the late Pleistocene and Holocene climatic variations, and sustained the subsequent cycles of forests reduction/expansion. The results also suggest that the recent anthropization of the landscape resulted in the isolation of a cluster of populations in the northern part of the island. The fragmentation of the habitat of the nuthatch may impede the future of the bird by creating isolated population units between which the gene flow is reduced.

Keywords

Sitta whiteheadiPinus nigraMediterraneanCorsicaLGMHoloceneRefugiumPopulation genetics
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 271 - 278
Copyright
University of Washington

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