Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Helsinki, Finland.
University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
PLoS One. 2021 Feb 19;16(2):e0246833. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246833. eCollection 2021.
Conservation and management of large carnivores requires knowledge of female and male dispersal. Such information is crucial to evaluate the population's status and thus management actions. This knowledge is challenging to obtain, often incomplete and contradictory at times. The size of the target population and the methods applied can bias the results. Also, population history and biological or environmental influences can affect dispersal on different scales within a study area. We have genotyped Eurasian lynx (180 males and 102 females, collected 2003-2017) continuously distributed in southern Finland (~23,000 km2) using 21 short tandem repeats (STR) loci and compared statistical genetic tests to infer local and sex-specific dispersal patterns within and across genetic clusters as well as geographic regions. We tested for sex-specific substructure with individual-based Bayesian assignment tests and spatial autocorrelation analyses. Differences between the sexes in genetic differentiation, relatedness, inbreeding, and diversity were analysed using population-based AMOVA, F-statistics, and assignment indices. Our results showed two different genetic clusters that were spatially structured for females but admixed for males. Similarly, spatial autocorrelation and relatedness was significantly higher in females than males. However, we found weaker sex-specific patterns for the Eurasian lynx when the data were separated in three geographical regions than when divided in the two genetic clusters. Overall, our results suggest male-biased dispersal and female philopatry for the Eurasian lynx in Southern Finland. The female genetic structuring increased from west to east within our study area. In addition, detection of male-biased dispersal was dependent on analytical methods utilized, on whether subtle underlying genetic structuring was considered or not, and the choice of population delineation. Conclusively, we suggest using multiple genetic approaches to study sex-biased dispersal in a continuously distributed species in which population delineation is difficult.
大型食肉动物的保护和管理需要了解雌性和雄性的扩散情况。这些信息对于评估种群的状况以及因此进行管理行动至关重要。但是，获取这种知识具有挑战性，而且有时信息并不完整或相互矛盾。目标种群的大小以及所应用的方法会影响研究区域内不同尺度上的结果。我们使用 21 个短串联重复（STR）基因座连续对分布在芬兰南部（约 23,000 平方公里）的 180 只雄性和 102 只雌性欧亚猞猁（收集于 2003-2017 年）进行基因分型，并比较了统计遗传测试，以推断遗传聚类内和遗传聚类之间以及地理区域内的局部和性别特定的扩散模式。我们使用基于个体的贝叶斯分配测试和空间自相关分析来测试性别特异性亚结构。使用基于种群的 AMOVA、F 统计量和分配指数分析了雌雄之间遗传分化、亲缘关系、近交和多样性的差异。我们的结果表明，两个不同的遗传聚类在雌性中具有空间结构，但在雄性中则是混合的。同样，雌性的空间自相关和亲缘关系明显高于雄性。但是，当将数据分为三个地理区域时，与分为两个遗传聚类相比，我们发现欧亚猞猁的性别特异性模式较弱。总体而言，我们的结果表明，在芬兰南部，欧亚猞猁的雄性扩散偏向雌性的亲缘关系。在我们的研究区域内，雌性的遗传结构从西向东增加。此外，检测到的雄性偏向扩散取决于所使用的分析方法，是否考虑了细微的潜在遗传结构以及种群划分的选择。总之，我们建议使用多种遗传方法来研究在连续分布的物种中存在的性别偏向扩散，因为在这种情况下，种群划分是困难的。
