Population identity of North Atlantic humpback whales:An ocean-wide analysis of genetic population structure
Bibliographic record
Abstract
North Atlantic (NA) humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) undertake seasonal migrations between high latitude feeding areas (ranging from the US coast to the Barents Sea) and low latitude winter breeding grounds in the Caribbean and the eastern NA (e.g., the Cabo Verde Archipelago). We assessed the genetic structure in the NA analyzing genetic data from ~3,000 humpback whales sampled in 14 different locations across the NA as well as off Gabon, a South Atlantic breeding ground. Each individual was sexed, genotyped at 19 microsatellite loci and the mitochondrial control region (mtCR) was sequenced. Bayesian cluster analyses and fixation indices detected two breeding populations within the NA and an additional population off Gabon. A high degree of genetic divergence was detected among the mtCR sequences between the western and eastern NA high latitude summer feeding areas indicative of long-term maternal site-fidelity to these two regions. Kinship-based analyses revealed the high latitude feeding areas in the NA as the summer destination for individuals wintering in the Cabo Verde Archipelago. There were clear signs of gene flow and introgression into the eastern NA breeding population from the Caribbean breeding population; evident by immigrants from the Caribbean breeding population and admixed individuals. The individuals on the eastern NA breeding grounds with a 100% eastern NA ancestry, all shared the same, unique mtCR haplotype; i.e., all belonging to the same single matrilineal lineage. This maternal lineage is endemic to the eastern NA, highlighting the rarity, and thus endangered, of the eastern NA breeding population. Furthermore, the study uncovered evidence of migration from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere. Overall, our results provide a comprehensive overview of the population structure of NA humpback whales throughout the ocean basin.
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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 | 0.000 | 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".