The influence of landscape characteristics and home-range size on the quantification of landscape-genetics relationships

Tabitha A. Graves; Tzeidle N. Wasserman; Milton Cezar Ribeiro; Erin L. Landguth; Stephen F. Spear; Niko Balkenhol; Colleen B. Higgins; Marie Josée Fortin; Samuel A. Cushman; Lisette P. Waits

doi:10.1007/s10980-011-9701-4

The influence of landscape characteristics and home-range size on the quantification of landscape-genetics relationships

Tabitha A. Graves, Tzeidle N. Wasserman, Milton Cezar Ribeiro, Erin L. Landguth, Stephen F. Spear, Niko Balkenhol, Colleen B. Higgins, Marie Josée Fortin, Samuel A. Cushman, Lisette P. Waits

Public and Community Health Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

28 Scopus citations

Abstract

A common approach used to estimate landscape resistance involves comparing correlations of ecological and genetic distances calculated among individuals of a species. However, the location of sampled individuals may contain some degree of spatial uncertainty due to the natural variation of animals moving through their home range or measurement error in plant or animal locations. In this study, we evaluate the ways that spatial uncertainty, landscape characteristics, and genetic stochasticity interact to influence the strength and variability of conclusions about landscape-genetics relationships. We used a neutral landscape model to generate 45 landscapes composed of habitat and non-habitat, varying in percent habitat, aggregation, and structural connectivity (patch cohesion). We created true and alternate locations for 500 individuals, calculated ecological distances (least-cost paths), and simulated genetic distances among individuals. We compared correlations between ecological distances for true and alternate locations. We then simulated genotypes at 15 neutral loci and investigated whether the same influences could be detected in simple Mantel tests and while controlling for the effects of isolation-by-distance using the partial Mantel test. Spatial uncertainty interacted with the percentage of habitat in the landscape, but led to only small reductions in correlations. Furthermore, the strongest correlations occurred with low percent habitat, high aggregation, and low to intermediate levels of cohesion. Overall genetic stochasticity was relatively low and was influenced by landscape characteristics.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	253-266
Number of pages	14
Journal	Landscape Ecology
Volume	27
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-011-9701-4
State	Published - Feb 2012

Keywords

Aggregation
Cohesiveness
Connectivity
Fragmentation
Gene flow
Genetic structure
Habitat resistance
Isolation-by-resistance
Least cost
Sampling error

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10.1007/s10980-011-9701-4

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@article{0b609fd243634f56900022016b06ce3b,

title = "The influence of landscape characteristics and home-range size on the quantification of landscape-genetics relationships",

abstract = "A common approach used to estimate landscape resistance involves comparing correlations of ecological and genetic distances calculated among individuals of a species. However, the location of sampled individuals may contain some degree of spatial uncertainty due to the natural variation of animals moving through their home range or measurement error in plant or animal locations. In this study, we evaluate the ways that spatial uncertainty, landscape characteristics, and genetic stochasticity interact to influence the strength and variability of conclusions about landscape-genetics relationships. We used a neutral landscape model to generate 45 landscapes composed of habitat and non-habitat, varying in percent habitat, aggregation, and structural connectivity (patch cohesion). We created true and alternate locations for 500 individuals, calculated ecological distances (least-cost paths), and simulated genetic distances among individuals. We compared correlations between ecological distances for true and alternate locations. We then simulated genotypes at 15 neutral loci and investigated whether the same influences could be detected in simple Mantel tests and while controlling for the effects of isolation-by-distance using the partial Mantel test. Spatial uncertainty interacted with the percentage of habitat in the landscape, but led to only small reductions in correlations. Furthermore, the strongest correlations occurred with low percent habitat, high aggregation, and low to intermediate levels of cohesion. Overall genetic stochasticity was relatively low and was influenced by landscape characteristics.",

keywords = "Aggregation, Cohesiveness, Connectivity, Fragmentation, Gene flow, Genetic structure, Habitat resistance, Isolation-by-resistance, Least cost, Sampling error",

author = "Graves, {Tabitha A.} and Wasserman, {Tzeidle N.} and Ribeiro, {Milton Cezar} and Landguth, {Erin L.} and Spear, {Stephen F.} and Niko Balkenhol and Higgins, {Colleen B.} and Fortin, {Marie Jos{\'e}e} and Cushman, {Samuel A.} and Waits, {Lisette P.}",

note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgments We thank Brent Burch, Kevin McGarigal, and John Citta for useful discussions on modeling random effects. This study resulted from a distributed graduate seminar (developing best practices for testing landscape effects on gene flow), conducted through the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), a center funded by the National Science Foundation Grant #EF-0553768, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the State of California. We thank Carisa Stansbury and Rodrigo Cisneros for assistance with preliminary simulations. This was a truly collaborative project. Contributions of each coauthor are listed in Supplement II. We appreciate our individual sources of support, including scholarship, fellowship and research assistantship providers. We also thank 2 anonymous reviewers.",

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doi = "10.1007/s10980-011-9701-4",

language = "English",

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AU - Ribeiro, Milton Cezar

AU - Landguth, Erin L.

AU - Spear, Stephen F.

AU - Balkenhol, Niko

AU - Higgins, Colleen B.

AU - Fortin, Marie Josée

AU - Cushman, Samuel A.

AU - Waits, Lisette P.

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgments We thank Brent Burch, Kevin McGarigal, and John Citta for useful discussions on modeling random effects. This study resulted from a distributed graduate seminar (developing best practices for testing landscape effects on gene flow), conducted through the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), a center funded by the National Science Foundation Grant #EF-0553768, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the State of California. We thank Carisa Stansbury and Rodrigo Cisneros for assistance with preliminary simulations. This was a truly collaborative project. Contributions of each coauthor are listed in Supplement II. We appreciate our individual sources of support, including scholarship, fellowship and research assistantship providers. We also thank 2 anonymous reviewers.

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KW - Connectivity

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KW - Gene flow

KW - Genetic structure

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KW - Isolation-by-resistance

KW - Least cost

KW - Sampling error

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The influence of landscape characteristics and home-range size on the quantification of landscape-genetics relationships

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Keywords

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