The Genetic Consequences of Dispersal and Immigration in a Wild Great Tit Population.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how dispersal impacts the genetic makeup of populations is essential for predicting their responses to environmental change. Gene flow-via within-population dispersal and external immigration-shapes population health and evolutionary potential by boosting genetic diversity, but it can also counteract local adaptation. We investigate these processes in a population of great tits (Parus major) in Wytham Woods, United Kingdom. This system represents a large, continuous population of a vagile, widely distributed species. Using a comprehensive social pedigree alongside two genomic datasets, one with 949 individuals genotyped at 600,000 SNPs and another with 2644 individuals typed at 10,000 SNPs, we demonstrate spatial genetic structure largely driven by the spatial and temporal cl

SUBMITTER: Estandia A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12745847 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature