Spatial genetic patterns indicate mechanism and consequences of large carnivore cohabitation within development.

ABSTRACT: Patterns of human development are shifting from concentrated housing toward sprawled housing intermixed with natural land cover, and wildlife species increasingly persist in close proximity to housing, roads, and other anthropogenic features. These associations can alter population dynamics and evolutionary trajectories. Large carnivores increasingly occupy urban peripheries, yet the ecological consequences for populations established entirely within urban and exurban landscapes are largely unknown. We applied a spatial and landscape genetics approach, using noninvasively collected genetic data, to identify differences in black bear spatial genetic patterns across a rural-to-urban gradient and quantify how development affects spatial genetic processes. We quantified differences in black be

SUBMITTER: Evans MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5980631 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature