Assessing the influence of the amount of reachable habitat on genetic structure using graphs.

The genetic structure of populations is made of two components: the genetic diversity of every population (intra-population) and the genetic differentiation between every pair of populations (inter-population). These two components are influenced by genetic drift and gene flow, which are driven by the joint influence of the amount of habitat and of its spatial configuration in the landscape. Habitat amount and configuration are highly interdependent and together determine habitat connectivity, i.e. the amount of reachable habitat (ARH) at several scales. Adopting such a conception of habitat connectivity makes it possible to describe habitat patterns by considering simultaneously intra-patc…