Postglacial Recolonization of the Southern Ocean by Elephant Seals Occurred From Multiple Glacial Refugia
The Southern Ocean is warming more rapidly than other parts of our planet. How this region's endemic biodiversity will respond to such changes can be illuminated by studying past events through genetic analyses of time-series data sets, including historic and fossil remains. Archaeological and subfossil remains show that the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) was common along the coasts of Australia and New Zealand in the recent past. This species is now mostly confined to sub-Antarctic islands and the southern tip of South America. We analyzed ancient seal samples from Australia (Tasmania), New Zealand and the Antarctic mainland to examine how southern elephant seals have responded to a changing climate and anthropogenic pressures during the Holocene. Our analyses show that these seals formed part of a broader Australasian lineage, comprising seals from all sampled locations from the south Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. Our study demonstrates that southern elephant seal populations have dynamically altered both range and population sizes under climatic and human pressures over surprisingly short evolutionary timeframes for such a large, long-lived mammal.
Authors
- Andrew Berg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9312-240X)
- Brenda L. Hall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3508-9829)
- Johanna L. A. Paijmans (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1938-7052)
- Jonathan M. Waters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1514-7916)
- Paul L. Koch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5248-1529)
- Frederik Valeur Seersholm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2217-3247)
- A. Rus Hoelzel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7265-4180)
- Andreanna J. Welch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5947-4695)
- Sue O’Connor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9381-078X)
- Carlo Baroni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5905-4650)
- Richard Walter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4536-097X)
- Mark de Bruyn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1528-9604)
- Alexander J. F. Verry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1037-4677)
- Nicolas J. Rawlence (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6968-6643)
- Patrick Faulkner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1501-6967)
- Kate McDonald (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4181-7071)
- Megan Askew
- Karen Greig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9566-9983)
- Axel Barlow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5532-9458)
- Michael Knapp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0937-5664)
- Simon Y. W. Ho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0361-2307)
- María Cristina Salvatore
- Michael Bunce
Institutions
- Griffith University (AU)
- Australian National University (AU)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Bangor University (GB)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Durham University (GB)
- Curtin University (AU)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IT)
- Lundbeck Foundation (DK)
- Department of Conservation (NZ)
- University of Maine (US)
- University of Otago (NZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Global Change Biology
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.70101
- Primary Topic
- Marine animal studies overview
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- University of Otago
- McGill University
- Durham University
- Griffith University
- Office of Polar Programs