If you’ve ever been to Iceland and spot a flying black-and-white bird, that’s not a penguin that’s gone off the opposite evolutionary path—that would be the Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica). These birds are the only puffins native to the Atlantic Ocean, and can be found on islands and landmasses within that body of water: Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia, among others.
Unfortunately, these animals are also listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) due to the species’ drastic decline in population over the years, partly due to exploitation and excess hunting for puffin meat. As such, scientists are in a race against the clock to preserve these beautiful birds to help them avoid the same fate as several other species of birds who had already vanished from the face of the planet due to humanity’s impact on nature.
One of these efforts aligned with Atlantic puffin conservation was just completed, and was published in the journal Communications Biology. In the study, researchers led by Oliver Kersten, a researcher in the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo, successfully sequenced the genome of these colorful fliers, revealing more about their family tree and aiding future efforts in conservation.
In the study, the researchers sequenced the genomes of 12 Atlantic puffins, gathered from 12 different nesting colonies. Results revealed four distinct groups of Atlantic puffins—that is, four main population clusters have been identified for these animals: 1) Spitsbergen, or the High Arctic; 2) Canada; 3) Isle of May, an island 8 km (5 mi) off the coast of Scotland; and 4) a sporadic colony scattered across the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Norway. According to Kersten, “[one] of the subgroups are the largest puffins, which only exist in the Arctic part of the world, [while] one of the other groups is located on the west coast of Canada and the United States.”
Previously, it was assumed that only three of these population clusters existed, according to Sanne Boessenkool, also a researcher in the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis at the University of Oslo. They added: “It has also been assumed that the [genetic] variation is evenly distributed among the different colonies. This assumption was based on analyses of smaller parts of the genetic material.” The study, they said, was primarily to test if these assumptions were true.
To the authors, their study “shows the importance of doing whole genome sequencing to reveal the distribution of genetic diversity.”
Their study arrived with great timing to aid conservation efforts for these puffins, as recent studies on an Atlantic puffin colony in Røst, Norway revealed “complete fledging failure” in nine of the last thirteen (13) seasons; this same colony has also lost close to 80% of its breeding pairs over the last forty (40) years.
For related conservation efforts, check out the Modern Sciences piece on the last of the Fernandina giant tortoises, named “Fernanda.”
References
- Anderson, N. (2021, September 22). Scientists Sequence Genome of Atlantic Puffin. Sci-News. http://www.sci-news.com/genetics/atlantic-puffin-genome-10091.html
- Kersten, O., Star, B., Leigh, D. M., Anker-Nilssen, T., Strøm, H., Danielsen, J., Descamps, S., Erikstad, K. E., Fitzsimmons, M. G., Fort, J., Hansen, E. S., Harris, M. P., Irestedt, M., Kleven, O., Mallory, M. L., Jakobsen, K. S., & Boessenkool, S. (2021). Complex population structure of the Atlantic puffin revealed by whole genome analyses. Communications Biology, 4(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02415-4
- National Geographic. (2011, May 10). Atlantic Puffin. National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/facts/atlantic-puffin
