Data from: Genetic-environment associations explain genetic differentiation and variation between western and eastern North Pacific Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) breeding colonies

<b>Abstract</b><br/><p>Animals are strongly connected to the environments they live in and may become adapted to local environments. Examining genetic-environment associations of key indicator species, like seabirds, provide greater insights into the forces that drive evolution in marine systems. Here we examined a RADseq dataset of 19,213 SNPs for 99 Rhinoceros Auklets (<em>Cerorhinca monocerata</em>) from five western Pacific and ten eastern Pacific breeding colonies. We used partial-redundancy analyses to identify candidate adaptive loci and to quantify the effects of environmental variation on population genetic structure. We identified 262 candidate adaptive loci, which accounted for 3.0% of the observed genetic variation among western Pacific and eastern Pacific breeding colonies. Genetic variation was more strongly associated with pH and maximum current velocity, than maximum sea surface temperature. Genetic-environment associations explain genetic differences between western and eastern Pacific populations, however, genetic variation within the western and eastern Pacific Ocean populations appears to follow a pattern of isolation-by-distance. This study represents a first to quantify the relationship between environmental and genetic variation for this widely distributed marine species and provides greater insights into the evolutionary forces that act on marine species.</p>