Lost in space and time: robust demography and enhanced resilience buffer adverse environmental effects in a highly isolated and sedentary pre-pleistocene landscape vertebrate.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Few animal populations have been studied under the framework of the OCBIL theory, which addresses the ecology and evolution of biodiversity on old climatically buffered infertile landscapes. Available genetic data challenge the low connectivity and high genetic differentiation predicted for isolated tepui-summit vertebrate communities, suggesting potential dispersal among summits. However, the OCBIL theory posits reduced dispersibility, enhanced resilience to habitat fragmentation and inbreeding due to small populations. We tested these hypotheses by conducting the first analytic evaluation of the spatial ecology and population biology of a tepui-summit vertebrate at multiple spatial scales.

Results

We used harmonic radar tracking (100 individuals/448 points of co

SUBMITTER: Kok PJR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11468910 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature