Patterns of Genetic Diversity Within Three California Quail Species Are Best Explained by Climate and Landscape Changes

Abstract

Many North American game animals experienced severe population declines during the 19th century due to market hunting. However, estimates of the timing and magnitude of these declines often rely on anecdotal evidence, which makes it difficult to understand the lasting impacts of hunting pressures versus climate or landscape changes on the genetic diversity of contemporary populations. Historical reports suggest the California quail ( Callipepla californica ) suffered more significant hunting pressure in the late 19th century relative to either Gambel's ( Callipepla gambelii ) or mountain quail ( Oreortyx pictus ). Genomic data can help illuminate the extent to which historical exploitation moulded the genetic health of modern quail populations. We compared whole genome sequences from these three quail species to evaluate whether reported differences in hunting pressure affected contemporary patterns of genetic diversity. Contrary to our expectations, California quail did not exhibit any evidence for population declines until the late 20th century, long after the era of market hunting ended. California quail also exhibited the highest levels of genetic diversity across most analyses with evidence for population expansion over the past 500,000 years. In contrast, the mountain quail exhibited a long‐term population decline beginning in the middle of the last ice age 30–40 thousand years ago. The Gambel's quail appears to have suffered a more recent bottleneck in association with a major drought that impacted the desert southwest during the mid‐20th century. Gambel's quail also exhibited increased realised genetic load for mild and moderately deleterious genetic variants. Together, our results demonstrate that market hunting had little lasting impact on the genetic diversity of these quail species, whereas landscape and climate changes have led to fluctuations in effective population size ( Ne ) and the buildup of genetic load.

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