Demographic independence along ecosystem boundaries in Steller sea lions revealed by mtDNA analysis: implications for management of an endangered species
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Previous genetic studies indicate Steller sea lions ( Eumetopias jubatus (Schreber, 1776)) comprise three phylogeographically distinct populations. However, differences in population trends and ecology and the limited extent of recorded dispersal suggest structure may be present at smaller scales. We examined sequence variation within a longer segment (531 bp) of the mtDNA control region in greater numbers (n = 1654) of sea lions from across Alaska than earlier investigations to investigate fine-scale dispersal patterns in Steller sea lions. We detected high levels of haplotypic diversity (h = 0.934) and confirmed phylogeographic differentiation between southeastern and western Alaska (Φst= 0.23, P < 0.0001), but also found significant differentiation at regional and local scales. Rookeries in the Gulf of Alaska, eastern Bering Sea, and eastern Aleutians were distinct from rookeries in the central and western Aleutians (Fst= 0.021, P < 0.0001; Φst= 0.017, P < 0.0001). The location of this split coincides with an oceanographic divergence between continental shelf and ocean basin waters and with differences in sea lion foraging ecology and population trends. A number of rookeries were also significantly differentiated from nearby rookeries (Fst= 0.02–0.025, P < 0.05), signifying substantial female-mediated philopatry, in some cases, at local scales. These findings have important implications for understanding the ecology of Steller sea lions in relation to marine ecosystems and the causes of population declines, and they provide guidance for management, including the identification of management stocks.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".