Seals quickly respond to gain and loss of habitat under clim...(y was lost. This habitat was relea...)

This habitat was released after the retreat of the grounded ice sheet in the Ross Sea Embayment 7,500-8,000 years ago, and is within the range of modern foraging excursions from the Macquarie Island colony. Using ancient mtDNA and evolutionary models, the research team tracked the population dynamics of the now extinct colony and the connectivity between this and modern breeding sites.

The team found clear signs of rapid expansion in the new colony 8,000 years ago. This was followed by directional migration away, coupled with a loss of diversity 1,000 years ago, when the sea ice is thought to have expanded. The data suggest that the new colony seals came initially from Macquarie Island, and that some returned there, but in much smaller numbers, when the new colony habitat was lost 7,000 years later.

In order to understand how biodiversity is generated and maintained over time, the team has set out to understand the process by which the seal populations formed and diverged. They analysed data from ancient DNA to show how elephant seal populations responded when new breeding habitat was gained and then lost over the course of approximately 7,000 years.

Professor Rus Hoelzel said: "Using ancient DNA, we were able to track the dynamics and diversity of a population from its foundation, through to its extinction, in the context of Holocene climate change. We learned that new habitat emerging within the species' migratory range could be quickly taken advantage of, but that the reverse was not true. The movement patterns of seals from this Antarctic breeding site would have been unlikely to take them near other potential breeding sites, and so when their breeding site was lost, their numbers crashed.

"The seals that discovered the new breeding site had things good, because food was abundant and nearby, however when the ice returned, the new colony collapsed and only a few seals made it back to their original h
'/>"/>