Aim Moose, Alces alces (Linnaeus, 1758), survived the European Pleistocene glaciations
in multiple southern refugia, in a northern refugium near the Carpathians
and possibly in other locations. During the second millennium ad, moose were
nearly extirpated in Europe and only recolonized their current range after World
War II. The number and location of refugia during the Pleistocene and recent
population lows may have affected the current genetic diversity. We sought to
characterize the genetic diversity in European moose in order to determine its
genetic structure and the location of genetic hotspots as a way of inferring its
population history and the number of Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) refugia.
Location Europe.
Methods We sequenced 538 nucleotides from the mitochondrial control
region of 657 moose from throughout the species’ European range. We estimated
diversity within and among 16 sampling localities, and used samova to
cluster sampling locations into subpopulations. We constructed phylogenetic
trees and median-joining networks to examine systematic relationships, and
conducted Bayesian analysis of the coalescent and used mismatch distributions
and approximate Bayesian computation to infer demographic history.
Results Estonia had the highest nucleotide diversity, and western Belarus had
the highest haplotype diversity. We observed four regional populations from
the samova analysis. We found three haplogroups in European moose, probably
representing lineages conserved in different refugia during the Pleistocene.
European moose underwent spatial expansion after the LGM, but did not
undergo demographic expansion. The effective population size has declined
markedly within the last 2000 years.
Main conclusions The current levels and distribution of genetic diversity in
European moose indicate the effects both of Pleistocene glaciations and of a
recent bottleneck, probably associated with anthropogenic influences such as
pastoralization and hunting, and a very recent re-expansion. We show that
both historical and recent events can influence the diversity and distribution of
a large mammal on a large scale.
Keywords
Anthropogenic influences, bottleneck, effective population size, expansion,
genetic structure, Last Glacial Maximum, mtDNA, north-eastern Europe,
phylogeography, refugia.
