Experimental Confirmation That Inbreeding Depression Increases Extinction Risk in Butterfly Populations

Nieminen, Matti; Singer, Michael C.; Fortelius, W.; Schöps, Katrin; Hanski, Ilkka

doi:10.1086/318630

Cited by 130 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Important functions including disease-resistance, reproduction and population recruitment are damaged disproportionately by inbreeding (Keller 1998;Reid et al 2003). It is thus unsurprising that inbreeding through population contraction leads to increased extinction risk (Saccheri et al 1998;Nieminen et al 2001;Frankham 2005a;O'Grady et al 2006). A decline in habitat quality may contribute to 'extinction debt' before demographic stochasticity finally delivers the coup de grâce (Ford et al 2009;Szabo et al 2011), but inbreeding depression may often drive demographic decline.…”

Section: Fitness Geneticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

Sunnucks

2011

Emu - Austral Ornithology

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Abstract. Assessing how environmental change affects the probability of persistence of organisms requires an understanding of dispersal through, and occupation of, landscapes, and the associated demographic outcomes. Projections of differences in persistence probability can then be made under different scenarios of land-use and global environmental change. Rates and distances of dispersal, and demographic change and trajectories, are difficult to measure accurately, but genetic approaches can make major contributions. For two decades the field of molecular ecology has been providing useful life-history information relevant to population management, including key ecological attributes such as disease-resistance and thermal biology, mobility, dispersal and gene flow, habitat connectivity, the spatial and temporal scales of population processes, and demography. Genetic estimators of these factors could be employed to a much greater extent than they are currently. To facilitate this increased use, genetic estimates of functional connectivity (mobility and gene flow of organisms) and demography need to be integrated directly into decision-making processes. Population genetics is well suited to Bayesian approaches, with associated benefits including the ability to consider many factors, and estimation of error and parameter sensitivities. Genetic estimators based on the mobility and reproductive success of individual organisms and their key ecological traits can make unique contributions alongside other types of data into agent-based, spatially explicit modelling approaches of real landscape scenarios at the range of scales needed by managers. Virtually all the tools to do this exist. It is imperative that genetic samples be collected for contemporary and future analyses.

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Section: Fitness Geneticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

Sunnucks

2011

Emu - Austral Ornithology

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“…However, if the loss of genetic diversity detected in the control region of the mtDNA is representative of variation in ecologically important traits (Reed and Frankham 2001), the adaptive and evolutionary potential of the Spanish white-headed duck population may have been reduced by the bottleneck (e.g., Keller et al 1994;Nieminen et al 2001;Frankham et al 2002;Reed et al 2003). Although we did not collect data for contemporary populations in the east, a loss of genetic variation may also have occurred in other regions where populations have undergone a reduction in size (e.g., the population wintering in Pakistan; Li and Mundkur 2003).…”

Section: Implications For Conservationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population structure and loss of genetic diversity in the endangered white-headed duck, Oxyura leucocephala

et al. 2006

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The white-headed duck is a globally threatened species native to the Palaearctic with a range extending from Spain in the west to the western edge of China in the east. Its populations have become fragmented and undergone major declines in recent decades. To study genetic differences between populations across the range and change in genetic diversity over time, we sequenced a portion of the mitochondrial DNA control region from 67 museum specimens (years 1861-1976) as well as 39 contemporary samples from Spain and seven from Greece (years 1992Greece (years -2003. In the historical sample, we found a lack of significant genetic structure between populations in different areas. We found evidence that the species experienced a rapid expansion in the past, perhaps from glacial refugia centred around the Mediterranean following the last ice age. In Spain, the population went through a dramatic bottleneck in the 1970s and early 1980s, when only a few dozens individuals remained in the wild. Although population size has since recovered to a few thousand individuals, we found a highly significant loss of mitochondrial haplotype diversity between the historical and contemporary samples. Given ongoing declines in other areas, losses in genetic diversity that may reduce the adaptive potential of white-headed ducks in the future are a continuing concern throughout the geographic range of this species.

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“…In natural populations, many empirical studies have also provided supporting evidence for a positive relationship between individual genetic diversity measured at neutral markers and different components of fitness, including disease resistance (Acevedo-Whitehouse et al 2003Ortego et al 2007a), fecundity (Ortego et al 2007b) and survival probability (Hoffman et al 2004;Markert et al 2004), although the possible role of inbreeding in such correlations has been recently put into question (Balloux et al 2004;Pemberton 2004). At the population level, low genetic diversity is suspected to reduce the ability of populations to respond to novel and changing environmental conditions ( Willi et al 2006) and compromise their long-term viability (Saccheri et al 1998;Westemeier et al 1998;Nieminen et al 2001;Spielman et al 2004;Frankham 2005). The level of genetic variation within a population depends on a balance between mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, inbreeding and gene flow, the last four factors being closely linked to the size and spatial isolation of populations (Frankham 1996;Hedrick 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…From a genetic point of view, organisms with a metapopulation structure generally show effective population sizes that are much smaller than the number of mature individuals (Gilpin 1991;Hedrick 1996;Amos & Harwood 1998). This has special relevance for small and isolated subpopulations, because they are theoretically more likely to exhibit reduced genetic diversity and may be more prone to extinction from genetic and stochastic processes than larger and better connected ones (Frankham 1995(Frankham , 2005Saccheri et al 1998;Nieminen et al 2001;Spielman et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual genetic diversity correlates with the size and spatial isolation of natal colonies in a bird metapopulation

et al. 2008

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The genetic consequences of small population size and isolation are of central concern in both population and conservation biology. Organisms with a metapopulation structure generally show effective population sizes that are much smaller than the number of mature individuals and this can reduce genetic diversity especially in small sized and isolated subpopulations. Here, we examine the association between heterozygosity and the size and spatial isolation of natal colonies in a metapopulation of lesser kestrels (Falco naumanni ). For this purpose, we used capture-mark-recapture data to determine the patterns of immigration into the studied colonies, and 11 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers that allowed us to estimate genetic diversity of locally born individuals. We found that individuals born in smaller and more isolated colonies were genetically less diverse. These colonies received a lower number of immigrants, supporting the idea that both reduced gene flow and small population size are responsible for the genetic pattern observed. Our results are particularly intriguing because the lesser kestrel is a vagile and migratory species with great movement capacity and dispersal potential. Overall, this study provides evidence of the association between individual heterozygosity and the size and spatial isolation of natal colonies in a highly mobile vertebrate showing relatively frequent dispersal and low genetic differentiation among local subpopulations.

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Experimental Confirmation That Inbreeding Depression Increases Extinction Risk in Butterfly Populations

Cited by 130 publications

References 30 publications

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

Towards modelling persistence of woodland birds: the role of genetics

Population structure and loss of genetic diversity in the endangered white-headed duck, Oxyura leucocephala

Individual genetic diversity correlates with the size and spatial isolation of natal colonies in a bird metapopulation

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