Isolation by distance versus landscape resistance: Understanding dominant patterns of genetic structure in Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina).

ABSTRACT: Landscape genetics investigations examine how the availability and configuration of habitat influence genetic structure of plants and animals. We used landscape genetics to evaluate the role that forest connectivity plays in determining genetic structure of the federally-threatened Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) using genotypes of 339 Northern Spotted Owls obtained for 10 microsatellite loci. Spatial clustering analyses identified a distinct genetic cluster at the southern extent of the region examined. This cluster could not be linked to landscape connectivity patterns and suggested that post-Pleistocene processes were involved with its development rather than contemporary landscape configuration. We also compared matrices of pairwise inter-individual genetic distances

SUBMITTER: Miller MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6072037 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature