Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 45, Pages 19044-19049Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0907704106
Keywords
complex networks; gene flow; habitat fragmentation; population genetics
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Funding
- Junta de Andalucia [P06-RNM-01499]
- Spanish Ministry of Education and Science
- European Heads of Research Councils
- European Science Foundation
- EC
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Spatial patterns of genetic variation provide information central to many ecological, evolutionary, and conservation questions. This spatial variability has traditionally been analyzed through summary statistics between pairs of populations, therefore missing the simultaneous influence of all populations. More recently, a network approach has been advocated to overcome these limitations. This network approach has been applied to a few cases limited to a single species at a time. The question remains whether similar patterns of spatial genetic variation and similar functional roles for specific patches are obtained for different species. Here we study the networks of genetic variation of four Mediterranean woody plant species inhabiting the same habitat patches in a highly fragmented forest mosaic in Southern Spain. Three of the four species show a similar pattern of genetic variation with well-defined modules or groups of patches holding genetically similar populations. These modules can be thought of as the long-sought-after, evolutionarily significant units or management units. The importance of each patch for the cohesion of the entire network, though, is quite different across species. This variation creates a tremendous challenge for the prioritization of patches to conserve the genetic variation of multispecies assemblages.
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