DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7db01
title: Data from: Defining conservation units with enhanced molecular tools to reveal fine scale structuring among Mediterranean green turtle rookeries

description: Understanding the connectivity among populations is a key research
 priority for species of conservation concern. Genetic tools are widely
 used for this purpose, but the results can be limited by the resolution of
 the genetic markers in relation to the species and geographic scale. Here,
 we investigate natal philopatry in green turtles (Chelonia mydas) from
 four rookeries within close geographic proximity (~ 200km) on the
 Mediterranean island of Cyprus. We genotyped hypervariable mtSTRs, a mtDNA
 control region sequence (CR) and 13 microsatellite loci to genetically
 characterise 479 green turtles using markers with different modes of
 inheritance. We demonstrated matrilineal stock structure for the first
 time among Mediterranean green turtle rookeries. This result contradicts
 previous regional assessments and supports a growing body of evidence that
 green turtles exhibit a more precise level of natal site fidelity than has
 commonly been recognised. The microsatellites detected weak male
 philopatry with significant stock structure among three of the six
 pairwise comparisons. The absence of Atlantic CR haplotypes and mtSTRs
 among these robust sample sizes reaffirm the reproductive isolation of
 Mediterranean green turtles and supports their status as a subpopulation.
 A power analysis effectively demonstrated that the mtDNA genetic markers
 previously employed to evaluate regional stock identity were confounded by
 an insufficient resolution considering the recent colonisation of this
 region. These findings improve the regional understanding of stock
 connectivity and illustrate the importance of using suitable genetic
 markers to define appropriate units for management and conservation.
description: Filtered_Microsatellite_genotypes_CR_mtSTRs_HR_haplotypesThe Excel file ‘Filtered_Microsatellite_genotypes_CR_mtSTRs_HR_haplotypes.xlsx’ contains the CR haplotypes, the mtSTRs, the HR haplotypes and genotypes at 13 microsatellite loci of all individuals used in the analyses to detect genetic structure in Arlequin v3.5.2.3 (Excoffier & Lischer 2010, GenAlEX v6.5 (Peakall & Smouse 2006, 2012), STRUCTURE v2.3 (Pritchard et al. 2000) and Geneland (Guillot et al. 2005).Unfiltered_microsatellite_genotypes_CR_mtSTRs_HR_haplotypesThe Excel file ‘Unfiltered_Microsatellite_genotypes_CR_mtSTRs_HR_haplotypes.xlsx’ contains the CR haplotypes, the mtSTRs, the HR haplotypes and genotypes at 13 microsatellite loci of all individuals used in the COLONY2 (Wang 2004, Jones & Wang 2010) analyses to remove putative relatives before the analysis of genetic structurePOWSIM_input_sample_size_frequenciesThe Excel file ‘POWSIM_input_sample_size_frequencies.xlsx’ contains the input data used for the power analysis of the genetic markers conducted in POWSIM v4.1 (Ryman & Palm 2006). The file contains two tables, one table entitled ‘Cyprus’ which contains the sample sizes and the CR, HR haplotype and microsatellite allele frequencies pertaining to this study. The second table entitled ‘Roberts (2004)’ contains the sample sizes and approximate allele frequencies used in the global assessment of green turtle genetic structure (Roberts et al. 2004).The "mainparams.txt" file contains the parameters for the STRUCTURE analysisThe file ‘mainparams’ contains the main parameter settings used for the STRUCTURE v2.3 (Pritchard et al. 2000) analysis of genetic structure with the data description for each parametermainparams.txt