Assessing the robustness of networks of spatial genetic variation
Habitat transformation is one of the leading drivers of biodiversity loss. The ecological effects of this trans- formation have mainly been addressed at the demographic level, for example, finding extinction thresholds. However, interpopulation genetic variability and the subsequent potential for ad...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2013 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/77436 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/77436 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Ecological networks Amphibian metapopulation Modularity resilience Alytes dickhilleni |
| Sumario: | Habitat transformation is one of the leading drivers of biodiversity loss. The ecological effects of this trans- formation have mainly been addressed at the demographic level, for example, finding extinction thresholds. However, interpopulation genetic variability and the subsequent potential for adaptation can be eroded before effects are noticed on species abundances. To what degree this is the case has been difficult to eval- uate, partly because of the lack of both spatially extended genetic data and an appropriate framework to map and analyse such data. Here, we extend recent work on the analysis of networks of spatial genetic var- iation to address the robustness of these networks in the face of perturbations. We illustrate the potential of this framework using the case study of an amphibian metapopulation. Our results show that while the disappearance of some spatial sites barely changes the modular structure of the genetic network, other sites have a much stronger effect. Interestingly, these consequences can not be anticipated using topological, sta- tic measures. Mapping these networks of spatial genetic variation will allow identifying significant evolution- ary units and how they vanish, merge and reorganise following perturbations. |
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