Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science Graduate Program, University of Hawai'i at Hilo, Hilo, Hawai'i, United States of America.
Hawai'i Cooperative Studies Unit, University of Hawai'i at Hilo, Hawai'i National Park, Hawai'i, United States of America.
PeerJ. 2023 Jan 25;11:e14365. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14365. eCollection 2023.
Island bat species are disproportionately at risk of extinction, and Hawai'i's only native terrestrial land mammal, the Hawaiian hoary bat ( locally known as 'ōpe'ape'a, is no exception. To effectively manage this bat species with an archipelago-wide distribution, it is important to determine the population size on each island and connectivity between islands. We used 18 nuclear microsatellite loci and one mitochondrial gene from 339 individuals collected from 1988-2020 to evaluate genetic diversity, population structure and estimate effective population size on the Islands of Hawai'i, Maui, O'ahu, and Kaua'i. Genetic differentiation occurred between Hawai'i and Maui, both of which were differentiated from O'ahu and Kaua'i. The population on Maui presents the greatest per-island genetic diversity, consistent with their hypothesized status as the original founding population. A signature of isolation by distance was detected between islands, with contemporary migration analyses indicating limited gene flow in recent generations, and male-biased sex dispersal within Maui. Historical and long-term estimates of genetic effective population sizes were generally larger than contemporary estimates, although estimates of contemporary genetic effective population size lacked upper bounds in confidence intervals for Hawai'i and Kaua'i. Contemporary genetic effective population sizes were smaller on O'ahu and Maui. We also detected evidence of past bottlenecks on all islands with the exception of Hawai'i. Our study provides population-level estimates for the genetic diversity and geographic structure of 'ōpe'ape'a, that could be used by agencies tasked with wildlife conservation in Hawai'i.
岛屿蝙蝠物种不成比例地面临灭绝风险，而夏威夷唯一的本土陆地哺乳动物——夏威夷灰白蝙蝠（当地称为“ōpe'ape'a”）也不例外。为了有效地管理这种分布在整个群岛的蝙蝠物种，确定每个岛屿上的种群数量以及岛屿之间的连通性非常重要。我们使用了 18 个核微卫星基因座和一个来自 1988 年至 2020 年收集的 339 个个体的线粒体基因，以评估夏威夷群岛、毛伊岛、瓦胡岛和考艾岛上的遗传多样性、种群结构和估计有效种群规模。夏威夷和毛伊岛之间存在遗传分化，这两个岛屿都与瓦胡岛和考艾岛分化。毛伊岛的种群表现出最大的岛屿内遗传多样性，这与它们作为原始起源种群的假设地位一致。在岛屿之间检测到了隔离距离的特征，当代的迁徙分析表明，在最近几代中基因流有限，并且在毛伊岛上存在雄性偏性的性别扩散。历史和长期的遗传有效种群规模估计通常大于当代估计，尽管夏威夷和考艾岛的当代遗传有效种群规模估计在置信区间内缺乏上限。瓦胡岛和毛伊岛的当代遗传有效种群规模较小。我们还在除了夏威夷之外的所有岛屿上检测到了过去瓶颈的证据。我们的研究提供了“ōpe'ape'a”遗传多样性和地理结构的种群水平估计，这可以为夏威夷的野生动物保护机构提供参考。
