Positive correlation between genetic diversity and fitness in a large, well-connected metapopulation
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BioMed Central
Open Access
Research article
Positive correlation between genetic diversity and fitness in a large, well-connected metapopulation Sofie Vandewoestijne*1, Nicolas Schtickzelle1 and Michel Baguette2 Address: 1Biodiversity Research Centre, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 5, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium and 2Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Département Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité, CNRS UMR 7179, 4 Avenue du Petit-Château, 91800 Brunoy, France Email: Sofie Vandewoestijne* - [email protected]; Nicolas Schtickzelle - [email protected]; Michel Baguette - [email protected] * Corresponding author
Published: 5 November 2008 BMC Biology 2008, 6:46
doi:10.1186/1741-7007-6-46
Received: 25 September 2008 Accepted: 5 November 2008
This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/6/46 © 2008 Vandewoestijne et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Background: Theory predicts that lower dispersal, and associated gene flow, leads to decreased genetic diversity in small isolated populations, which generates adverse consequences for fitness, and subsequently for demography. Here we report for the first time this effect in a well-connected natural butterfly metapopulation with high population densities at the edge of its distribution range. Results: We demonstrate that: (1) lower genetic diversity was coupled to a sharp decrease in adult lifetime expectancy, a key component of individual fitness; (2) genetic diversity was positively correlated to the number of dispersing individuals (indicative of landscape functional connectivity) and adult population size; (3) parameters inferred from capture-recapture procedures (population size and dispersal events between patches) correlated much better with genetic diversity than estimates usually used as surrogates for population size (patch area and descriptors of habitat quality) and dispersal (structural connectivity index). Conclusion: Our results suggest that dispersal is a very important factor maintaining genetic diversity. Even at a very local spatial scale in a metapopulation consisting of large high-density populations interconnected by considerable dispersal rates, genetic diversity can be decreased and directly affect the fitness of individuals. From a biodiversity conservation perspective, this study clearly shows the benefits of both in-depth demographic and genetic analyses. Accordingly, to ensure the long-term survival of populations, conservation actions should not be blindly based on patch area and structural isolation. This result may be especially pertinent for species at their range margins, particularly in this era of rapid environmental change.
Background Habitat destruction and fragmentat
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