Social organization and genetic structure: insights from codistributed bat populations

Abstract

The impact of ecology and social organization on genetic structure at landscape spatial scales, where gene dynamics shape evolution as well as determine susceptibility to habitat fragmentation, is poorly understood. Attempts to assess these effects must take into account the potentially confounding effects of history. We used microsatellites to compare genetic structure in seven bat species with contrasting patterns of roosting ecology and social organization, all of which are codistributed in an ancient forest habitat that has been exceptionally buffered from radical habitat shifts. Over one thousand individuals were captured at foraging sites and genotyped at polymorphic microsatellite loci. Analyses of spatially explicit genotype data revealed interspecies differences in the extent of movement and gene flow and genetic structure across continuous intact forest. Highest positive genetic structure was observed in tree-roosting taxa that roost either alone or in small groups. By comparison, a complete absence of genetic autocorrelation was noted in the cave-roosting colonial species across the study area. Our results thus reveal measurable interspecies differences in the natural limits of gene flow in an unmodified habitat, which we attribute to contrasting roosting ecology and social organization. The consequences of ecology and behaviour for gene flow have important implications for conservation. In particular, tree-roosting species characterized by lower vagility and thus gene flow will be disproportionally impacted by landscape-scale forest clearance and habitat fragmentation, which are prevalent in the study region. Our method also highlights the usefulness of rapid sampling of foraging bats for assaying genetic structure, particularly where roosting sites are not always known.

Responses of Tropical Bats to Habitat Fragmentation, Logging, and Deforestation

“…Roosting ecology and social organization may generally be important predictors of genetic structuring in insectivorous Old World bats. Rossiter et al (2012) found that less vagile, treeroosting species exhibit reduced gene flow, even across continuous intact rain forest, compared to more wide-ranging colonial cave-roosting species, indicating that the former should be disproportionately affected by landscape-scale habitat fragmentation.…”

Vocalization during copulation behavior in greater horseshoe bats, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum

“…Studies have documented that a "private bandwidth of frequency" may have crucial functions in social communication and sexual behavior, for example, allowing bats to recognize relative individuals or attract copulation partners of right species [34]. In mating season, the male greater horseshoe bats have a polygynous mating system and male territoriality [35]. Thus the malefemale reunion would be necessary for the successful copulation.…”

Diversidad y estructura genética de artibeus jamaicensis (chiroptera: phyllostomidae) en Chiapas, México

“…Artibeus jamaicensis se adapta fácilmente a diferentes tipos de hábitat, posee una alta movilidad y alta abundancia, lo cual le facilita un flujo génico alto entre sus poblaciones (Rossiter et al 2012;Vázquez-Domínguez et al 2013). Estos aspectos de la historia natural de A. jamaicensis dan lugar a los altos niveles de diversidad genética, y la baja diferenciación genética encontrados en las poblaciones de Pantaleón y Manacal.…”

“…La aclimatación a distintos tipos de hábitats (Clutton-Broock 1988), y la alta vagilidad de A. jamaicensis, le facilita un flujo génico alto entre sus poblaciones, lo que reduce su diferenciación genética (Carstens et al 2004;Rossiter et al 2012;Vázquez-Domínguez et al 2013;Del Real-Monroy et al 2014). La conexión entre las poblaciones de A. jamaicensis es sostenida por el resultado del AMOVA, el cual indica que el mayor porcentaje de variación genética se reparte entre los individuos dentro de las poblaciones (94.62%).…”