Assessing the permeability of landscape features to animal movement: using genetic structure to infer functional connectivity.

ABSTRACT: Human-altered environments often challenge native species with a complex spatial distribution of resources. Hostile landscape features can inhibit animal movement (i.e., genetic exchange), while other landscape attributes facilitate gene flow. The genetic attributes of organisms inhabiting such complex environments can reveal the legacy of their movements through the landscape. Thus, by evaluating landscape attributes within the context of genetic connectivity of organisms within the landscape, we can elucidate how a species has coped with the enhanced complexity of human altered environments. In this research, we utilized genetic data from eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus) in conjunction with spatially explicit habitat attribute data to evaluate the realized permeability of various land

SUBMITTER: Anderson SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4342345 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature