Should I stay or should I go? Dispersal and population structure in small, isolated desert populations of West African crocodiles.

ABSTRACT: The maintenance of both spatial and genetic connectivity is paramount to the long-term persistence of small, isolated populations living in environments with extreme climates. We aim to identify the distribution of genetic diversity and assess population sub-structuring and dispersal across dwarfed desert populations of Crocodylus suchus, which occur in isolated groups, usually less than five individuals, along the mountains of Mauritania (West Africa). We used both invasive and non-invasive sampling methods and a combination of mitochondrial DNA (12 S and ND4) and microsatellite markers (32 loci and a subset of 12 loci). Our results showed high genetic differentiation and geographic structure in Mauritanian populations of C. suchus. We identified a metapopulation system acting within four

SUBMITTER: Velo-Anton G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3989217 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature