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Population structure of harbour porpoises in the Baltic region: evidence of separation based on geometric morphometric comparisons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2012

Anders Galatius ,
Carl Christian Kinze  and
Jonas Teilmann
Anders Galatius*
Affiliation:
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
Carl Christian Kinze
Affiliation:
Rosenørns Allé 55 2. tv., 1970 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
Jonas Teilmann
Affiliation:
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: A. Galatius, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark email: agj@dmu.dk
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Abstract

The harbour porpoise is seriously depleted and threatened with extinction in the Baltic Sea. It is usually assumed that Baltic porpoises form a separate population unit, although the evidence for this has been disputed lately. Here, a 3-D geometric morphometric approach was employed to test a number of hypotheses regarding population structure of the harbour porpoise in the Baltic region. 277 porpoise skulls from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany and Poland were measured with a suite of 3-D landmarks. Statistical analyses revealed highly significant shape differences between porpoises from the North Sea, Belt Sea and the inner Baltic Sea. A comparison of the directionalities of the shape vectors between these units found differences that cannot be attributed to a general, continual shape trend going from the North Sea to the inner Baltic Sea. These vectors indicate a morphological adaptation to the specific sub-areas. Such adaptation may be the result of the topographic peculiarities of the area with variable topography and shallow waters, e.g. in the Belt Sea porpoises, there may be a greater reliance on benthic and demersal prey. The present results show that isolation by distance alone is an unlikely explanation for the differences found within the Baltic region and thus support previously reported molecular indications of a separate population within the inner Baltic Sea.

Keywords

harbour porpoisepopulation structuregeometric morphometricsskullBaltic SeaBelt SeaNorth Seaconservationmorphological adaptation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 92 , Issue 8: Marine Mammals , December 2012 , pp. 1669 - 1676
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2012

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