A comparison of neutral genetic differentiation and genetic diversity among migratory and resident populations of Golden-crowned-Kinglets (Regulus satrapa)

We predicted that resident populations would exhibit greater genetic differentiation and lower genetic diversity than migratory populations because migratory behaviour is thought to enhance gene flow. The magnitude of genetic differentiation and genetic diversity among migratory and resident populations was comparable, and the greatest levels of differentiation were observed for pairwise comparisons between Ontario and all western populations.

Distance-based redundancy models and redundancy models revealed that patterns of neutral genetic differentiation and neutral genetic diversity follow an isolation-by-distance model and are not correlated with migratory behaviour. Overall it appears that genetic patterns are more closely associated with Pleistocene glacial history as proposed in a previous study.

Usage notes

The current dataset is genotype data for seven microsatellites. Included in this data are location, population information, latitude, and longitude for each sample. Missing geneotype values are listed as zero for this dataset.