Biology subjects

Sekercioglu, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Sekercioglu, C..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Misleading Success: Genomes Reveal Critical Risks to European Gray Wolves

Have European gray wolves recovered? Despite an increase to [~]21,000 wolves (Canis lupus), our genomic analyses reveal significant risks to their long-term viability. We analyzed over 200 whole-genomes spanning five major European populations. Rather than a single recovering population, European wolves form a mosaic of isolated, independently evolving lineages, mostly diverging in the late Pleistocene. All lineages have contemporary effective population sizes below the threshold for long-term viability (Ne [≥] 500) and show extensive inbreeding. Runs of homozygosity reveal population-specific inbreeding histories spanning recent to deep timeframes. Most lineages exhibit higher realized than masked genetic load, indicating emerging inbreeding depression. These findings challenge claims that downlisting European wolves is biologically warranted: none of these populations currently meets thresholds associated with favorable conservation status.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2026

Wildfires during fall migration affect bird movements, avian health, and migration timing in western North America: Insights from bird banding and feather isotopes

With the peak of the wildfire season in North America typically occurring during the core part of fall bird migration, migratory birds are likely to be increasingly impacted by worsening wildfire seasons during their southerly movements. In this study, we combined two approaches to assess the impact of wildfires on migratory birds captured in southern Utah. First, we used five years of bird banding data to assess how bird movement and physical condition patterns are impacted. Second, we used stable hydrogen isotopes from collected feathers to identify the geographic origin of the individuals of several migratory species in order to better understand how fires may be influencing migration. We found that when there were more wildfires active in western North America, there were more captures of birds at our banding station, likely a result of birds shifting their movements to avoid areas of fire and smoke, and that birds had worse body condition and overall health as shown from lower body masses. We also found that during periods when wildfires are especially active and severe, wildfire activity has the most significant influence on bird movements and health compared to other prominent environmental variables. Our isotopic results provide evidence that two species migration patterns varied across the year in both migration timing and likely summer origin, and show how fire activity could have affected the migratory window for some species. More broadly, our isotope data improves our knowledge of the likely geographic origins of migratory birds in this particular flyway, adds to the literature on feather-based hydrogen isotope analyses, provides some of the first published isotope data for two species, and streamlines a workflow that can aid future researchers working with feather hydrogen isotope data.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Complex genomic ancestry in southern regions and drivers of continental-level genetic diversity in the wolves of Asia

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Asia encompass most of the species global genetic diversity and many endangered populations. However, a clear understanding of the evolutionary history of wolves from many parts of Asia, especially southern regions, is lacking. We used 98 whole genomes of wolves sampled across Eurasia to better resolve their evolutionary history by investigating phylogenetic and gene flow histories across the genome, and to characterize their demographic history and genetic diversity. The strongest barriers to gene flow coincided with boundaries separating the three major extant wolf lineages - Indian, Tibetan, and Holarctic. Wolves in the central Asian mountain ranges belonged to the Holarctic lineage, and despite their geographic adjacency only share minimal ancestry with the Tibetan lineage. In contrast, wolves from eastern Asia share population-wide ancestry with the Tibetan lineage, which may reflect an unsampled lineage similar, but not exactly to, the modern-day Tibetan lineage. Wolves from southwestern Asia also share population-wide ancestry with the Indian lineage, likely due to old (>6kya) admixture events. Long-term historical declines over the last 100,000 years, geographic isolation, and recent inbreeding have resulted in the Indian and Tibetan wolves having some of the lowest levels of genetic diversity and highest realized genetic loads. In contrast, adjacent populations exhibit some of the highest genetic diversity, due in part to admixture along contact zones. Our study illustrates how using multiple approaches that consider heterogenous signals across the genome can more fully resolve the historical and contemporary processes that have led to present-day species diversity.

evolutionary biology↗