Disjunct distribution of highly diverged mitochondrial lineage clade and population subdivision in a marine bivalve with pelagic larval dispersal

Mitochondrial DNA sequence data for 295 individuals of the marine bivalve Macoma balthica (L.) were collected from 10 sites across the European distribution, and from Alaska. The data were used to infer population subdivision history and estimate current levels of gene flow. Inferred historical biogeography was expected to be congruent with colonization of the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean after the opening of the Bering Strait 3.5 Ma. In addition, the last glacial maximum, about 18 000 years ago, was expected to have been responsible for most of the present‐day distribution of molecular variation within Europe, because the area must have been recolonized after confinement to France and the south of the British Isles during the last glacial maximum. Current gene flow was hypothesized to be high, because the larvae of M. balthica spend 2–5 weeks drifting in the water column. The geographical distribution of one highly diverged haplotype clade was found to be disjunct and was encountered exclusively in samples from the Baltic Sea and Alaska. A molecular clock calibration for marine bivalve cytochrome‐c‐oxidase I dates this clade as having split off from the other haplotypes 9.8–39 Ma. Multiple colonizations of the Atlantic Ocean from the Pacific by M. balthica may explain the strong differences found between Baltic Sea and other European populations of this species. The sympatric occurrence of the highly diverged mitochondrial lineages in western parts of the Baltic Sea points to secondary admixture. With the use of coalescent analysis, population divergence times for French vs. other non‐Baltic European populations (‘Atlantic population assemblage’) were estimated at a minimum of about 110 000 years ago, well before the last glacial maximum 18 000 years ago. Signatures of population divergence of M. balthica that appear to have originated during the Pleistocene have thus survived the last glacial maximum. Some of the populations within the Atlantic assemblage are currently isolated, while others appear to be connected by gene flow. Apparently, populations of this species can remain highly subdivided in spite of the potential for high gene flow, implying that their population and evolutionary dynamics can be independent.