Avian Genetic Diversity

A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Diversity".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 1430

Special Issue Editors


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Department of Life Sciences, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain
Interests: animal production; conservation genomics; wildlife forensics; evolutionary biology; ancient DNA
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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, Science Faculty, Dokuz Eylül University, 35390 İzmir, Turkey
Interests: evolutionary biology; behavioural ecology; host-parasite interactions; ornithology; population genomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With their bright or cryptic plumage, distinctive—sometimes jangly—calls and melodious songs, and a diverse range of lifestyles and adaptations to various environments, birds have always aroused great interest, making them one of the most studied classes of vertebrates. Notably, birds possess the smallest genomes of this subphylum, and their genome architecture is highly preserved, which has further fueled molecular biology research to address questions related to their physiology, evolutionary ecology, and conservation.

In this Special Issue, we invite contributions that highlight how genetic diversity studies have advanced our knowledge of birds and provide insights for decision-making regarding their management and conservation. We also welcome contributions that shed light on past events and dynamics that have shaped the present-day biogeography of entire regions. We also welcome contributions that demonstrate the importance of genetic diversity in elucidating the validity of contentious taxa and clarifying, as well as those that explore the genetic drivers behind adaptation to certain environmental conditions. Of particular interest is research addressing the loss of genetic diversity across temporal and spatial scales and issues related to human-mediated introgressive hybridisation. This Special Issue encompasses research papers, reviews, and short communications related to the topics of interest

Dr. Giovanni Forcina
Dr. Tamer Albayrak
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • adaptive radiation
  • bird
  • divergence
  • extinction
  • hybridisation
  • introgression
  • museomics
  • phylogeography
  • phylogeny
  • speciation
  • wildlife forensics

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

22 pages, 2026 KB  
Article
Evolutionary Relationships and Genetic Diversity in the Southern Siberian Populations of the Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug), a Young and Endangered Species
by Daria Nikolaevna Rozhkova, Elena Pavlovna Shnayder, Valentina Georgievna Tambovtseva, Igor Vyacheslavovich Karyakin, Alla Veniaminovna Blekhman, Oleg Evgenievich Lazebny, Svetlana Yuryevna Sorokina, Ludmila Sergeevna Zinevich and Alexey Mikhailovich Kulikov
Diversity 2026, 18(1), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/d18010050 - 18 Jan 2026
Viewed by 790
Abstract
Studying intraspecific differentiation in closely related species is essential to clarify the phylogenetic relationships and mechanisms of early stage speciation, particularly in evolutionarily young lineages affected by human-driven population declines. The endangered saker falcon (Falco cherrug), with its ambiguous phylogenetic links [...] Read more.
Studying intraspecific differentiation in closely related species is essential to clarify the phylogenetic relationships and mechanisms of early stage speciation, particularly in evolutionarily young lineages affected by human-driven population declines. The endangered saker falcon (Falco cherrug), with its ambiguous phylogenetic links to the gyrfalcon (F. rusticolus), exemplifies this scenario. This study presents a comprehensive genetic analysis of F. cherrug and F. rusticolus using mtDNA markers and microsatellite loci, focusing on the diversity of southern Siberian saker falcon populations. The genotyping results for these populations were correlated with phenotypic data obtained from long-term monitoring (1999–2021). Our findings provide novel insights into the current subspecific differentiation and the remnants of a nascent subspecies structure that existed before the recent demographic collapse. Furthermore, our results support the hypothesis of the gyrfalcon’s origin as a descendant species of the Asian saker falcon, i.e., an evolutionarily young lineage undergoing divergence. Our data contribute to the understanding of the Hierofalco evolutionary history, particularly through the analysis of heterogeneous mutation rates among mitochondrial haplogroups. This study underscores the critical importance of conservation efforts for wild endangered populations through long-term monitoring integrated with combined genetic approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Avian Genetic Diversity)
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