Genetic
differentiation versus geographical distance in
California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus)
Rookeries (breeding
areas) of California Sea Lions (Zalophus
californianus) are distributed along the
west coast of North America, from Baja California to the
Gulf of Alaska.
The first graph plots the Genetic Distance
(measured as FST / (1 - FST)
between pairs of populations versus their
geographic distance.
The regression line (solid line) is shown with ±95% confidence
interval (dashed lines). FST
/ (1 - FST) measures
genetic distance as genetic differentiation among population
(FST)
with respect to that among individuals within populations
or with respect to the total (1 - (FIS
+ FIT)). Note that
fractional FST among
nearby rookeries (< 250 km) varies from 0.005 ~ 0.020,
whereas those separated by > 1500 km range between 0.03
~ 0.05. The conclusion is that Sea Lion rookeries show isolation by distance:
populations at the northern and southern extremes
are the most differentiated.
The second graph shows a semi-log
plot of the theoretical relationship between
pairwiseFST
/ (1 - FST)
& FST.
The calculated values ofFST
/ (1 - FST)= 0.01
~ 0.05, consistent with FST
= 0.01 ~ 0.07.