Genetic diversity in butterflies: Interactive effects of habitat fragmentation and climate-driven range expansion.

ABSTRACT: Some species are expanding their ranges polewards during current climate warming. However, anthropogenic fragmentation of suitable habitat is affecting expansion rates and here we investigate interactions between range expansion, habitat fragmentation and genetic diversity. We examined three closely related Satyrinae butterflies, which differ in their habitat associations, from six sites along a transect in England from distribution core to expanding range margin. There was a significant decline in allozyme variation towards an expanding range margin in Pararge aegeria, which has the most restricted habitat availability, but not in Pyronia tithonus whose habitat is more widely available, or in a non-expanding 'control species' (Maniola jurtina). Moreover, data from another transect in Scot

SUBMITTER: Hill JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1617171 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature