Gene flow and effective population sizes of the butterfly Maculinea alcon in a highly fragmented, anthropogenic landscape

TY - JOUR

T1 - Gene flow and effective population sizes of the butterfly Maculinea alcon in a highly fragmented, anthropogenic landscape

AU - Vanden Broeck, An

AU - Maes, Dirk

AU - Kelager, Andreas

AU - Wynhoff, Irma

AU - Wallisdevries, Michiel F.

AU - Nash, David Richard

AU - Oostermeijer, J. Gerard B.

AU - van Dyck, Hans

AU - Mergeay, Joachim

PY - 2017/5/1

Y1 - 2017/5/1

N2 - Understanding connectivity among populations in fragmented landscapes is of paramount importance in species conservation because it determines their long-term viability and helps to identify and prioritize populations to conserve. Rare and sedentary species are particularly vulnerable to habitat fragmentation as they occupy narrow niches or restricted habitat ranges. Here, we assess contemporary interpopulation connectedness of the threatened, myrmecophilous butterfly,Maculinea alcon, in a highly fragmented landscape.Weinferred dispersal, effective population sizes, genetic diversity and structure based on 14 locations of M. alcon in Belgium and the Netherlands using data from 12 microsatellite loci. Despite the reported sedentary behaviour ofM. alcon, we observed moderate levels of contemporary dispersal between patches, but only in landscapes where populations were located within a distance of 3 km from neighbouring populations. Estimates of effective population sizes (Ne) were very low (ranging from1.6 to 17.6) and bottleneck events occurred inmost of the studied populations. We discuss the functional conservation units delineated based on a former mark-release-recapture study, and formulate appropriate conservation strategies to maintain viable (meta)populations in highly fragmented, anthropogenic landscapes.

AB - Understanding connectivity among populations in fragmented landscapes is of paramount importance in species conservation because it determines their long-term viability and helps to identify and prioritize populations to conserve. Rare and sedentary species are particularly vulnerable to habitat fragmentation as they occupy narrow niches or restricted habitat ranges. Here, we assess contemporary interpopulation connectedness of the threatened, myrmecophilous butterfly,Maculinea alcon, in a highly fragmented landscape.Weinferred dispersal, effective population sizes, genetic diversity and structure based on 14 locations of M. alcon in Belgium and the Netherlands using data from 12 microsatellite loci. Despite the reported sedentary behaviour ofM. alcon, we observed moderate levels of contemporary dispersal between patches, but only in landscapes where populations were located within a distance of 3 km from neighbouring populations. Estimates of effective population sizes (Ne) were very low (ranging from1.6 to 17.6) and bottleneck events occurred inmost of the studied populations. We discuss the functional conservation units delineated based on a former mark-release-recapture study, and formulate appropriate conservation strategies to maintain viable (meta)populations in highly fragmented, anthropogenic landscapes.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Butterfly conservation

KW - Dispersal

KW - Effective population size

KW - Gene fliow

KW - Sedentary species

KW - Conservation

U2 - 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.02.001

DO - 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.02.001

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0006-3207

VL - 209

SP - 89

EP - 97

JO - Biological Conservation

JF - Biological Conservation

ER -