SREL Reprint #3462

Evaluating the influence of life-history characteristics on genetic structure: a comparison of small mammals inhabiting complex agricultural landscapes

Elizabeth M. Kierepka1, Sara J. Anderson2, Robert K. Swihart3, and Olin E. Rhodes Jr1

1Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, PO Drawer E, Aiken, South Carolina 29802
2Biosciences Department, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 1104 7th Ave,
Moorhead, Minnesota 56563
3Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University,
715 W. State Street, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907

Abstract: Conversion of formerly continuous native habitats into highly fragmented landscapes can lead to numerous negative demographic and genetic impacts on native taxa that ultimately reduce population viability. In response to concerns over biodiversity loss, numerous investigators have proposed that traits such as body size and ecological specialization influence the sensitivity of species to habitat fragmentation. In this study, we examined how differences in body size and ecological specialization of two rodents (eastern chipmunk; Tamias striatus and white-footed mouse; Peromyscus leucopus) impact their genetic connectivity within the highly fragmented landscape of the Upper Wabash River Basin (UWB), Indiana, and evaluated whether landscape configuration and complexity influenced patterns of genetic structure similarly between these two species. The more specialized chipmunk exhibited dramatically more genetic structure across the UWB than white-footed mice, with genetic differentiation being correlated with geographic distance, configuration of intervening habitats, and complexity of forested habitats within sampling sites. In contrast, the generalist white-footed mouse resembled a panmictic population across the UWB, and no landscape factors were found to influence gene flow. Despite the extensive previous work in abundance and occupancy within the UWB, no landscape factor that influenced occupancy or abundance was correlated with genetic differentiation in either species. The difference in predictors of occupancy, abundance, and gene flow suggests that species-specific responses to fragmentation are scale dependent.

Keywords: comparative landscape genetics, ecological specialization, fragmentation, Upper Wabash Valley

SREL Reprint #3462

Kierepka, E. M., S. J. Anderson, R. K. Swihart, and O. E. Rhodes Jr. 2016. Evaluating the influence of life-history characteristics on genetic structure: a comparison of small mammals inhabiting complex agricultural landscapes. Ecology and Evolution 6(17): 6376-6396.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).