Macro-genetic studies must not ignore limitations of genetic markers and scale
Ivan PAZ-VINAS1,2*‡†, Evelyn L. JENSEN3*‡, Laura D. BERTOLA4*^, Martin F. BREED5*^, Brian K. HAND6*, Margaret E. HUNTER7*^, Francine KERSHAW8*, Deborah M. LEIGH9*, Gordon LUIKART6*^, Joachim MERGEAY10,11*^, Joshua M. MILLER12*, Charles B. van REES, Gernot SEGELBACHER13*^, Sean HOBAN14*^
 
1 Laboratoire Evolution & Diversité Biologique, Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Université de Toulouse, UPS, CNRS, IRD, UMR 5174, 118 route de Narbonne, Toulouse, 31062, France
2 Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement, Université de Toulouse, UPS, CNRS, INP, UMR 5245, 118 route de Narbonne, Toulouse, 31062, France
3 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 21 Sachem St, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
4 City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY, 10031, USA
5 College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia
6 Flathead Lake Biological Station, 32125 Bio Station Ln, Polson, MT, 59860, USA
7 U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, 7920 NW 71st St, Gainesville, FL,
32653, USA
8 Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY, USA
9 WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute, Zürcherstrasse 111, 8903 Birmensdorf, Switzerland
10 Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Gaverstraat 4, 9500 Geraardsbergen, Belgium
11 Aquatic Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, KULeuven, Charles Deberiotstraat 32, box 2439, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
12 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
13 Chair of Wildlife Ecology and Management, University Freiburg, Tennenbacher Str. 4, D-79106
Freiburg, Germany
14 Center for Tree Science, The Morton Arboretum, 4100 Illinois Rt 53, Lisle, 60532, USA
 
* Group on Earth Observation Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) Genetic Composition Working Group
^ Conservation Genetics Specialist Group, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 1196 Gland, Switzerland
§ Group on Earth Observation Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) Species Populations and Freshwater BONs
 
These authors contributed equally to the work
 
Corresponding author:
Ivan PAZ-VINAS
Laboratoire Évolution et Diversité Biologique (EDB UMR 5174), CNRS, IRD, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France.
E-mail: ivanpaz23@gmail.com
Phone number: +33 5 34 32 39 46
 
Authors email addresses and ORCID IDs:
Ivan Paz-Vinas: ivanpaz23@gmail.com, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0043-9289
Evelyn L. Jensen: evelyn.jensen@yale.edu, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1819-3117
Laura D. Bertola: laura.bertola@gmail.com, ORCID: 0000-0002-3445-0355
Martin F. Breed: martin.breed@flinders.edu.au, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7810-9696
Brian K. Hand: brian.hand@umontana.edu, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1152-665X
Margaret E. Hunter: mhunter@usgs.gov, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4760-9302
Francine Kershaw: fkershaw@nrdc.org
Deborah M. Leigh: deborahmleigh.research@gmail.com, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3902-2568
Gordon Luikart: gordon.luikart@mso.umt.edu, ORCID ID: 0000-00018697-0582
Joachim Mergeay: joachim.mergeay@inbo.be, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-6504-0551
Joshua M. Miller: jmm1@ualberta.ca, ORCID ID: 000-0002-4019-7675
Charles B. van Rees: charles.vanrees@flbs.umt.edu
Gernot Segelbacher: gernot.segelbacher@wildlife.uni-freiburg.de, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8024-7008
Sean Hoban: shoban@mortonarb.org
 
Statement of authorship: All authors contributed to the brainstorming of ideas and to the development of the manuscript. IPV and ELJ wrote the drafts of the manuscript, and all authors contributed substantially to revisions. IPV made the figures and GIS analyses, and ELJ conducted the literature survey. SH initiated the project, and IPV and SH supervised the project.
 
Data availability statement: No new data has been used in this article. Mitochondrial COI sequence data for fish time-series were made available online by Millette et al. (2020) and can be found here: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.29rt7n0.
 
Running title: Markers and scale issues must not be ignored
 
Keywords (up to 10): macro-genetics, population genetics, macro-ecology, genetic data archiving, genetic diversity patterns, conservation, Genbank, anthropogenic impacts, COI, mitochondrial sequences
 
Type of article: Technical Comment (addressed article: Millette et al. Ecology Letters, 2020, 23:55-67)
Number of words in the abstract: 46
Number of words in the main text: 821
Number of references: 10
Number of figures and tables: 1 Figure
 
ABSTRACT
Millette et al. (Ecology Letters, 2020, 23:55-67) reported no consistent worldwide anthropogenic effects on animal genetic diversity using repurposed mitochondrial sequences. We describe limitations to this study, some of which are common to other macro-genetic studies, that may lead to misinterpretations and unintended consequences for conservation.