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Separating the effects of habitat area,
fragmentation and matrix resistance on genetic differentiation
in complex landscapes
Cushman, Samuel A.; Shirk, Andrew J.; Landguth, Erin L. 2012. Separating the effects of habitat area, fragmentation and matrix resistance on genetic differentiation in complex landscapes. Landscape Ecology. 27: 369-380.
doi: 10.1007/s10980-011-9693-0
Little is known about how variation in landscape mosaics affects genetic differentiation. The goal of this paper is to quantify the relative importance of habitat area and configuration, as well as the contrast in resistance between habitat and non-habitat, on genetic differentiation. We hypothesized that habitat configuration would be more influential than habitat area in influencing genetic differentiation. Population size is positively related to habitat area, and therefore habitat area should affect genetic drift, but not gene flow. In contrast, differential rates and patterns of gene flow across a landscape should be related to habitat configuration. Using spatially explicit, individual-based simulation modeling, we found that habitat configuration had stronger relationships with genetic differentiation than did habitat area, but there was a high degree of confounding between the effects of habitat area and configuration. We evaluated the predictive ability of six widely used landscape metrics and found that patch cohesion and correlation length of habitat are among the strongest individual predictors of genetic differentiation. Correlation length, patch density and clumpy are the most parsimonious set of variables to predict the magnitude of genetic differentiation in complex landscapes.
Keywords: landscape genetics, area, configuration, fragmentation, limiting factors, CDPOP, simulation, thresholds
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Title: RMRS Other
Publications: Separating the effects of habitat area, fragmentation
and matrix resistance on genetic differentiation in complex landscapes
Electronic Publish Date: May 24, 2012
Last Update: May
24, 2012