Journal article
Last Glacial Maximum diversification implicated by continent-wide population structure in an avian top predator, the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus)
Evolution, v 79(10), pp 2007-2022
13 Jun 2025
PMID: 40512529
Abstract
Many North American species have diversified in response to past climate change, but the specific impacts of late Pleistocene glaciations on diversification and population structure in widespread North American species are uncertain. We tested drivers of continent-wide population genomic structure in North American great horned owls (Bubo virginianus). Using species distribution modeling and reduced representation genomic sequencing on 114 specimen-vouchered samples, we quantified genetic diversity, gene flow, and population divergence times to test the drivers of population structure. Specifically, we examined how contemporary and historical processes shaped this species' spatial patterns of genetic structure. We identified three populations corresponding to eastern, northwestern, and southwestern North America. Areas of relatively high effective genetic diversity corresponded to regions of high habitat suitability during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and gene flow was low among recently diverged populations. Landscape genomic models accounting for least-cost path dispersal distances during the LGM and current landscape found support for both contemporary and historical geographic features driving genomic differentiation. Our results revealed how habitat fragmentation associated with historical and contemporary landscapes drove population structuring. Late Pleistocene glaciations, as recently as the LGM, seem to have driven population structure of this geographically widespread, charismatic, and large-bodied avian species.
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Details
- Title
- Last Glacial Maximum diversification implicated by continent-wide population structure in an avian top predator, the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus)
- Creators
- Emily N Ostrow (Corresponding Author) - University of KansasLukas J Musher - Drexel UniversityKevin Winker - University of Alaska Museum, 907 Yukon Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USAPeter M Mattison - Department of Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 87131 USAChristopher C Witt - University of New MexicoRobert G Moyle - University of Kansas
- Publication Details
- Evolution, v 79(10), pp 2007-2022
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Number of pages
- 16
- Grant note
- KU Panorama GrantKU Ornithology GrantKansas Ornithological SocietyNSF Graduate Research Fellowship ProgramNSF Division of Environmental Biology: DEB-1557053
This work was supported by the KU Panorama Grant and the KU Ornithology Grant awarded to E.N.O. Some sampling was made possible through Kansas Ornithological Society funding to E.N.O. E.N.O. was supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. R.G.M. was supported by NSF Division of Environmental Biology grant DEB-1557053.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Ornithology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001532907900001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105019080698
- Other Identifier
- 991022056899604721
InCites Highlights
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology
- Genetics & Heredity