Quantifying functional connectivity: The role of breeding habitat, abundance, and landscape features on range-wide gene flow in sage-grouse.

ABSTRACT: Functional connectivity, quantified using landscape genetics, can inform conservation through the identification of factors linking genetic structure to landscape mechanisms. We used breeding habitat metrics, landscape attributes, and indices of grouse abundance, to compare fit between structural connectivity and genetic differentiation within five long-established Sage-Grouse Management Zones (MZ) I-V using microsatellite genotypes from 6,844 greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) collected across their 10.7 million-km² range. We estimated structural connectivity using a circuit theory-based approach where we built resistance surfaces using thresholds dividing the landscape into "habitat" and "nonhabitat" and nodes were clusters of sage-grouse leks (where feathe

SUBMITTER: Row JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6099827 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature