A Bocage Landscape Restricts the Gene Flow of Pest Vole Populations.

ABSTRACT: The population dynamics of most animal species inhabiting agro-ecosystems may be determined by landscape characteristics, with agricultural intensification and the reduction of natural habitats influencing dispersal and hence limiting gene flow. Increasing landscape complexity would thus benefit many endangered species by providing different ecological niches, but it could also lead to undesired effects in species that can act as crop pests and disease reservoirs. We tested the hypothesis that a highly variegated landscape influences patterns of genetic structure in agricultural pest voles. Ten populations of fossorial water vole, Arvicola scherman, located in a bocage landscape in Atlantic NW Spain were studied using DNA microsatellite markers and a graph-based model. The results s

SUBMITTER: Somoano A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9225191 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature