Search results for "HABITAT FRAGMENTATION"
showing 10 items of 36 documents
Growth sites of polypores from quantitative expert evaluation: Late-stage decayers and saprotrophs fruit closer to ground
2017
Abstract Life history traits are key to why species occur when and where they do and how their populations will respond to environmental changes. However, dispersal-related traits of fungi are generally poorly known. We studied how spore release height from the ground, an important determinant of airborne dispersal, is connected to other traits in polypores. We collected expert evaluations of fruit body growth sites for 140 species and found that experts generally provided consistent estimates of height above the ground. Height was correlated with other traits: species fruiting on living trees, earlier decay stages and deciduous hosts tend to fruit higher above the ground. While our data do…
Influence of resource quality on the composition of soil decomposer community in fragmented and continuous habitat
2004
Abstract The aim of this field experiment was to explore the combined effects of two factors potentially affecting the local composition of soil decomposer community: resource quality and habitat fragmentation. We created humus (habitat) patches with three different resource quality: (1) pure homogenised humus; (2) humus enriched with needle litter; and (3) humus enriched with needle and leaf litter. These patches were embedded either in a mineral soil matrix, thus representing fragmented habitat, or in natural forest soil, representing continuous (non-fragmented) habitat. The development of faunal (colonisations/extinctions of soil animal populations) and microbial communities in the patch…
Conservation genetics of an endemic from the Mediterranean Basin: high genetic differentiation but no genetic diversity loss from the last population…
2013
The Mediterranean Basin is a biodiversity hotspot, housing > 11.000 narrowly endemic plant species, many of which are declining due to mass tourism and agricultural intensification. To investigate the genetic resource impacts of ongoing habitat loss and degradation, we characterized the genetic variation in the last known populations of Leopoldia gussonei, a self-compatible endangered Sicilian Grape Hyacinth numbering less than 3,000 remaining individuals, using AFLP. Results demonstrated significant genome-wide genetic differentiation among all extant populations (I broken vertical bar(ST) = 0.05-0.56), and genetic clustering according to geographic location. Gene diversity was fairly c…
Effects of environment and genotype on dispersal differ across departure, transfer and settlement in a butterfly metapopulation
2022
Active dispersal is driven by extrinsic and intrinsic factors at the three stages of departure, transfer and settlement. Most empirical studies capture only one stage of this complex process, and knowledge of how much can be generalized from one stage to another remains unknown. Here we use genetic assignment tests to reconstruct dispersal across 5 years and 232 habitat patches of a Glanville fritillary butterfly ( Melitaea cinxia ) metapopulation. We link individual dispersal events to weather, landscape structure, size and quality of habitat patches, and individual genotype to identify the factors that influence the three stages of dispersal and post-settlement survival. We found that ne…
Risk factors for Lyme disease : A scale-dependent effect of host species diversity and a consistent negative effect of host phylogenetic diversity
2021
Biodiversity can influence disease risk. One example of a diversity-disease relationship is the dilution effect, which suggests higher host species diversity (often indexed by species richness) reduces disease risk. While numerous studies support the dilution effect, its generality remains controversial. Most studies of diversity-disease relationships have overlooked the potential importance of phylogenetic diversity. Furthermore, most studies have tested diversity-disease relationships at one spatial scale, even though such relationships are likely scale dependent. Using Lyme disease as a model system, we investigated the effects of host species richness and phylogenetic relatedness on the…
Morphology and genetics reveal an intriguing pattern of differentiation at a very small geographic scale in a bird species, the forest thrush Turdus …
2014
12 pages; International audience; Mobile organisms are expected to show population differentiation only over fairly large geographical distances. However, there is growing evidence of discrepancy between dispersal potential and realized gene flow. Here we report an intriguing pattern of differentiation at a very small spatial scale in the forest thrush (Turdus lherminieri), a bird species endemic to the Lesser Antilles. Analysis of 331 individuals from 17 sampling sites distributed over three islands revealed a clear morphological and genetic differentiation between these islands isolated by 40-50 km. More surprisingly, we found that the phenotypic divergence between the two geographic zone…
Genetic diversity ofNarcissus tortifolius, an endangered endemic species from Southeastern Spain
2015
AbstractIn this work, we analyzed inter-simple sequence repeat markers from 10 populations (298 individuals) spanning the whole distribution range of the endemic Narcissus tortifolius. We assessed genetic variation levels and distribution by estimates of genetic diversity, analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), principal coordinates and Bayesian methods. N. tortifolius showed moderate genetic diversity at intrapopulation level and low genetic differentiation of populations. In general, Almerian populations showed slightly higher levels of genetic diversity than Murcian populations. Our results indicate that habitat fragmentation has not caused genetic depauperation in N. tortifolius but di…
Genetic diversity and local population structure in Ambrosina bassii (Araceae, Ambrosineae), a Mediterranean relict species
2009
The effects of habitat fragmentation on the genetic structure of Ambrosina bassii are analyzed. The species, whose reproductive biology is mostly unknown, is the only representative of its genus and tribe and it is endemic to the central Mediterranean area. The selected study area was the island of Sicily, in which wild populations show a wide morphological variability and ecological amplitude. Patterns of within- and among-population genetic diversity in eleven Sicilian populations, occurring in six disjunct areas, were examined by means of allozyme electrophoresis. High levels of genetic diversity were found as shown by the mean expected heterozygosity (He ¼ 0.263), the percentage of poly…
Population Genetics, Parasitism, and Long-Term Population Dynamics of Microcebus murinus in Littoral Forest Fragments of South-Eastern Madagascar
2012
Habitat fragmentation is a major threat for lemur conservation, as it reduces population sizes to levels that are nonviable in the long term. Alternatively, isolated populations may have great importance for conservation, as some are well protected and some lemurs do well even in small areas. Hence, knowing which characteristics indicate a population under threat is of paramount importance for conservation action. We studied Microcebus murinus populations confined to forest fragments of different sizes and states of degradation in south-eastern Madagascar to investigate relationships between population size, population dynamics, genetic diversity of coding and noncoding DNA, and infection r…
Comparing RADseq and microsatellites for estimating genetic diversity and relatedness : Implications for brown trout conservation
2019
The conservation and management of endangered species requires information on their genetic diversity, relatedness and population structure. The main genetic markers applied for these questions are microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), the latter of which remain the more resource demanding approach in most cases. Here, we compare the performance of two approaches, SNPs obtained by restriction-site-associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) and 16 DNA microsatellite loci, for estimating genetic diversity, relatedness and genetic differentiation of three, small, geographically close wild brown trout (Salmo trutta) populations and a regionally used hatchery strain. The genetic di…