Preferred habitat and effective population size drive landscape genetic patterns in an endangered species

Weckworth, B; Musiani, M; DeCesare, N; McDevitt, AD; Hebblewhite, M; Mariani, S

Abstract

Landscape genetics provides a framework for pinpointing environmental features
that determine the important exchange of migrants among populations.
These studies usually test the significance of environmental variables on
gene flow, yet ignore one fundamental driver of genetic variation in small populations,
effectivepopulation size,Ne.We combinedboth approaches inevaluating
genetic connectivity of a threatened ungulate,woodland caribou.We used leastcost
paths to calculate matrices of resistance distance for landscape variables
(preferred habitat, anthropogenic features and predation risk) and populationpairwise
harmonic means of Ne, and correlated them with genetic distances,
FST and Dc. Results showed that spatial configuration of preferred habitat and
Newere the twobest predictors of genetic relationships.Additionally, controlling
for the effect of Ne increased the strength of correlations of environmental variables
with genetic distance, highlighting the significant underlying effect of Ne
in modulating genetic drift and perceived spatial connectivity. We therefore
have provided empirical support to emphasize preventing increased habitat
loss and promoting population growth to ensure metapopulation viability.

Citation

Weckworth, B., Musiani, M., DeCesare, N., McDevitt, A., Hebblewhite, M., & Mariani, S. Preferred habitat and effective population size drive landscape genetic patterns in an endangered species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1769), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1756

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2013
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Print ISSN: 0962-8452
• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 280
• Issue: 1769
• Pages: 1-9
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1756
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1756
• Related Public URLs: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/