Do all roads lead to resistance? State road density is the main impediment to gene flow in a flagship species inhabiting a severely fragmented anthropogenic landscape.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

Connectivity conservation is ideally based on empirical information on how landscape heterogeneity influences species-specific movement and gene flow. Here, we present the first large-scale evaluation of landscape impacts on genetic connectivity in the European wildcat (Felis silvestris), a flagship and umbrella species for connectivity conservation across Europe.

Location

The study was carried out in the core area of the distributional range of wildcats in Germany, covering about 186,000 km² of a densely populated and highly fragmented landscape.

Methods

We used data of 975 wildcats genotyped at 14 microsatellites and an individual-based landscape genetic framework to assess the importance of twelve landscape variables for explaining observed ge

SUBMITTER: Westekemper K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8258205 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature