Institute of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal.
Mol Ecol. 2023 Aug;32(16):4515-4530. doi: 10.1111/mec.16543. Epub 2022 Jun 6.
Ecologically distinct species may respond to landscape changes in different ways. In addition to basic ecological data, the extent of the geographic range has been successfully used as an indicator of species sensitivity to anthropogenic landscapes, with widespread species usually found to be less sensitive compared to range-restricted species. In this study, we investigate connectivity patterns of two closely related but ecologically distinct newt species - the range-restricted, Lissotriton montandoni and the widespread, L. vulgaris - using genomic data, a highly replicated setting (six geographic regions per species), and tools from landscape genetics. Our results show the importance of forest for connectivity in both species, but at the same time suggest differential use of forested habitat, with L. montandoni and L. vulgaris showing the highest connectivity at forest-core and forest-edges, respectively. Anthropogenic landscapes (i.e., higher crop- or urban-cover) increased resistance in both species, but the effect was one to three orders of magnitude stronger in L. montandoni than in L. vulgaris. This result is consistent with a view of L. vulgaris as an ecological generalist. Even so, currently, the negative impact of anthropogenic landscapes is mainly seen in connectivity among L. vulgaris populations, which show significantly stronger isolation and lower effective sizes relative to L. montandoni. Overall, this study emphasizes how habitat destruction is compromising genetic connectivity not only in endemic, range-restricted species of conservation concern but also in widespread generalist species, despite their comparatively lower sensitivity to anthropogenic landscape changes.
生态特征明显不同的物种可能会以不同的方式对景观变化做出反应。除了基本的生态数据外，地理分布范围的大小已成功地被用作物种对人为景观敏感程度的指标，与分布范围有限的物种相比，广泛分布的物种通常被认为不太敏感。在这项研究中，我们使用基因组数据、高度复制的设置（每个物种六个地理区域）以及景观遗传学工具，研究了两种密切相关但生态特征明显不同的蝾螈物种的连通模式——分布范围有限的斑腿泛螈（Lissotriton montandoni）和广泛分布的中华蝾螈（L. vulgaris）。我们的研究结果表明，森林对两种物种的连通性都很重要，但同时也表明了它们对森林生境的不同利用方式，斑腿泛螈和中华蝾螈在森林核心区和森林边缘的连通性最高。人为景观（即更高的作物或城市覆盖）增加了两种物种的阻力，但在斑腿泛螈中这种影响的强度是中华蝾螈的一到三个数量级。这一结果与中华蝾螈是生态广义种的观点一致。即便如此，目前，人为景观的负面影响主要体现在中华蝾螈种群之间的连通性上，与斑腿泛螈相比，中华蝾螈的种群隔离程度更高，有效种群规模更小。总的来说，这项研究强调了栖息地的破坏是如何不仅影响到受保护的地方性、分布范围有限的物种的遗传连通性，也影响到分布广泛的广义种的遗传连通性，尽管它们对人为景观变化的敏感性相对较低。
