Tracing the Drivers of Range‐Wide Bowhead Whale Genomic Structure and Diversity
Michael V. Westbury, Nicholas A. Freymueller, Andrea A. Cabrera, Lutz Bachmann, Steven H. Ferguson, Mads Peter Heide‐Jørgensen, Kit M. Kovacs, Christian Lydersen, Olga Shpak, Øystein Wiig, Damien A. Fordham, Eline D. Lorenzen · 2026
Read Tracing the Drivers of Range‐Wide Bowhead Whale Genomic Structure and Diversity by Michael V. Westbury, Nicholas A. Freymueller, Andrea A. Cabrera, Lutz Bachmann, Steven H. Ferguson, Mads Peter Heide‐Jørgensen, Kit M. Kovacs, Christian Lydersen, Olga Shpak, Øystein Wiig, Damien A. Fordham, Eline D. Lorenzen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13182215.txt.
Description
Michael Westbury and co-authors read bowhead whale genomes across the whole Arctic range. Warming seas make genetic variety a possible shield for ice-loving species. Bowheads tie tightly to sea ice and carry a long whaling history. Nuclear and mitochondrial genomes came from all four recognized stocks.
Three genetic groups appear instead of the expected four. Two named stocks merge into one shared population. Habitat links rebuilt over the last 11,700 years explain the grouping well. Inbreeding signs stay low and diversity high despite centuries of hunting. The Okhotsk Sea group stands out as most at risk, with the least diversity and most inbreeding.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Michael V. Westbury, Nicholas A. Freymueller, Andrea A. Cabrera, Lutz Bachmann, Steven H. Ferguson, Mads Peter Heide‐Jørgensen, Kit M. Kovacs, Christian Lydersen, Olga Shpak, Øystein Wiig, Damien A. Fordham, Eline D. Lorenzen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 73 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |