Historic and present harbour porpoise populations in the Baltic region – geometric morphometrics analysis

The proposed project would significantly contribute towards several of
the Activities highlighted in the Agreement’s Triennium Work Plan,
including being highly informative to the implementation and monitoring
of the Recovery Plan for Baltic Harbour Porpoises (Jastarnia Plan), a
proposed strategic priority in the Strategy plan. The ancient DNA
analysis would help establish a much longer-term baseline dataset of
effective population size estimates. The genetic monitoring protocol will
provide a low-cost, effective sampling method, which will greatly enhance
the data from surveys and be highly informative of the success of the
recovery plan.

Using ancient DNA analysis of the same dataset of sub-fossil samples
we will track the entire genetic history of the harbour porpoise in the
Baltic Sea to infer demographic change using genetic diversity as a
proxy to identify the timing of population fragmentation and declines in
genetic diversity and effective population size.

Second, we aim to test a method for genetic monitoring from seawater
samples, which could be used in conjunction with other survey methods,
but in addition to identifying presence or absence could also infer
population of origin.

Description:Travel to museum collections with skulls for morphometric analysis. These collections include: Natural History Museum, Copenhagen; Natural History Museum, Gothenburg; Natural History Museum, Stockholm; Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki; Zoologic
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Implementing AgencyAnders Galatius Jørgensen / University of Aarhus
Collaborating agenciesMagnus Wahlberg, Fjord-Bælt Centre, Kerteminde, Denmark

Activity start dateJanuary 2009
Activity end dateJanuary 2010
CMS AppendixAppendix II
Taxonomic groupMarine mammals
Target region
Final technical reportYes

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