Expansion history and environmental suitability shape effective population size in a plant invasion.

ABSTRACT: The margins of an expanding range are predicted to be challenging environments for adaptation. Marginal populations should often experience low effective population sizes (N_e ) where genetic drift is high due to demographic expansion and/or census population size is low due to unfavourable environmental conditions. Nevertheless, invasive species demonstrate increasing evidence of rapid evolution and potential adaptation to novel environments encountered during colonization, calling into question whether significant reductions in N_e are realized during range expansions in nature. Here we report one of the first empirical tests of the joint effects of expansion dynamics and environment on effective population size variation during invasive range expansion. We estimate c

SUBMITTER: Braasch J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6584048 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature