Among- and within-patch components of genetic diversity respond at different rates to habitat fragmentation: an empirical demonstration.

ABSTRACT: Habitat fragmentation is a ubiquitous by-product of human activities that can alter the genetic structure of natural populations, with potentially deleterious effects on population persistence and evolutionary potential. When habitat fragmentation results in the subdivision of a population, random genetic drift then leads to the erosion of genetic diversity from within the resulting subpopulation, random genetic drift then leads to the erosion of genetic diversity from within the resulting subpopulations and greater genetic divergence among them. Theoretical and simulation analyses predict that these two main genetic effects of fragmentation, greater differentiation among resulting subpopulation and reduced genetic diversity within them, will proceed at very different rates. Despite import

SUBMITTER: Keyghobadi N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1578708 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature