Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
PLoS One. 2011 May 4;6(5):e19582. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019582.
Many coastal species occupying the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest in North America comprise endemic populations genetically and ecologically distinct from interior continental conspecifics. Morphological variation previously identified among wolf populations resulted in recognition of multiple subspecies of wolves in the Pacific Northwest. Recently, separate genetic studies have identified diverged populations of wolves in coastal British Columbia and coastal Southeast Alaska, providing support for hypotheses of distinct coastal subspecies. These two regions are geographically and ecologically contiguous, however, there is no comprehensive analysis across all wolf populations in this coastal rainforest.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By combining mitochondrial DNA datasets from throughout the Pacific Northwest, we examined the genetic relationship between coastal British Columbia and Southeast Alaska wolf populations and compared them with adjacent continental populations. Phylogenetic analysis indicates complete overlap in the genetic diversity of coastal British Columbia and Southeast Alaska wolves, but these populations are distinct from interior continental wolves. Analyses of molecular variation support the separation of all coastal wolves in a group divergent from continental populations, as predicted based on hypothesized subspecies designations. Two novel haplotypes also were uncovered in a newly assayed continental population of interior Alaska wolves.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: We found evidence that coastal wolves endemic to these temperate rainforests are diverged from neighbouring, interior continental wolves; a finding that necessitates new international strategies associated with the management of this species.
许多生活在北美的太平洋西北地区温带雨林中的沿海物种，其遗传和生态上与内陆大陆的同物种不同。以前在狼群中发现的形态变异导致了在太平洋西北地区确认了多个狼亚种。最近，单独的遗传研究已经确定了在不列颠哥伦比亚省沿海和阿拉斯加东南沿海的狼种群存在分化，这为存在独特沿海亚种的假说提供了支持。这两个地区在地理和生态上是连续的，但在这个沿海雨林中没有对所有狼种群进行全面分析。
方法/主要发现：通过结合整个太平洋西北地区的线粒体 DNA 数据集，我们研究了不列颠哥伦比亚省沿海和东南阿拉斯加狼种群之间的遗传关系，并将它们与相邻的大陆种群进行了比较。系统发育分析表明，不列颠哥伦比亚省沿海和东南阿拉斯加狼的遗传多样性完全重叠，但这些种群与内陆大陆狼不同。分子变异分析支持所有沿海狼种群与大陆种群分离，这与基于假设亚种指定的预测一致。在新检测的阿拉斯加内陆大陆狼的一个新种群中，还发现了两个新的单倍型。
结论/意义：我们发现证据表明，这些温带雨林特有的沿海狼与邻近的内陆大陆狼已经分化；这一发现需要与该物种管理相关的新的国际战略。
