Agriculture creates subtle genetic structure among migratory and nonmigratory populations of burrowing owls throughout North America.

ABSTRACT: Population structure across a species distribution primarily reflects historical, ecological, and evolutionary processes. However, large-scale contemporaneous changes in land use have the potential to create changes in habitat quality and thereby cause changes in gene flow, population structure, and distributions. As such, land-use changes in one portion of a species range may explain declines in other portions of their range. For example, many burrowing owl populations have declined or become extirpated near the northern edge of the species' breeding distribution during the second half of the 20th century. In the same period, large extensions of thornscrub were converted to irrigated agriculture in northwestern Mexico. These irrigated areas may now support the highest densities of burrowi

SUBMITTER: Macias-Duarte A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7548177 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature