These non-genetic data of course do not confirm gene flow but do show that movements occur; also given

the low statistical resolution of both studies such movements may be frequent enough to mediate at least low levels of gene flow between the populations. Another SB203580 mw study that inferred movement between the Australian humpback whale populations was based on song. Noad et al. (2000) reported that over three breeding seasons the humpback whale song characteristic of western Australia replaced the song of eastern Australian whales. The authors suggested that this song evolution is mediated by the movement of a small number of males between populations although they recognized it was possible that singing on feeding grounds may also transfer song types between populations without the movement of individual whales (Mattila et al. 1987). Genetic differentiation between the eastern and western Australian humpback populations was stronger for mtDNA than nuclear DNA. Several factors can contribute to this common pattern including the larger effective population size of nuclear

genes, differences in the rate and mode of mutation (Palumbi and Baker 1994, Baker et al. 1998a), and sex-biased dispersal (Avise 1995, Balloux et al. 2000). In this study, when the sexes were analyzed separately, we found similar levels of genetic differentiation between the Australian humpback whale populations indicting little evidence for strong sex-biased dispersal despite the expectation of female selleck inhibitor philopatry and male-driven gene flow displayed by many migratory marine vertebrates (Greenwood 1983, Pardini et al. BGB324 cost 2001, Bowen and Karl 2007, Engelhaupt et al. 2009). Collectively the genetic and nongenetic evidence suggest the low genetic differentiation between

the Australian populations is likely to be a consequence of low levels of ongoing gene flow, mediated by the occasional movement of individuals between breeding populations. However, it is possible that the low differentiation is due to recent isolation of the two Australian populations. This isolation could have been driven by the severe depletion of these populations during the era of industrial whaling. This depletion together with strong genetic drift while numbers were low may have resulted in the genetic differentiation apparent today. If the former is the most likely scenario then quantifying the contemporary magnitude of gene flow is notoriously difficult at such low levels of differentiation. Allendorf et al. (2013) suggest that for reliable estimates of Nm based on FST, the levels of differentiation need to be moderate to large (FST > 0.05–0.10). Furthermore, they warn against interpreting Nm values literally at the low FST values as found in this study. Similarly, more complex methods for estimating migration, such as the coalescent- and assignment-based approaches are equally unreliable at low levels of genetic divergence (Faubet et al. 2007, Palsbøll et al. 2010).