a rapid, strong, and convergent genetic response to urban habitat fragmentation in four divergent and widespread vertebrates快速、强大和收敛的遗传反应城市栖息地的分裂在四个不同的和广泛的脊椎动物.pdfVIP

A Rapid, Strong, and Convergent Genetic Response to Urban Habitat Fragmentation in Four Divergent and Widespread Vertebrates 1 ¤ 2 3 Kathleen Semple Delaney * , Seth P. D. Riley , Robert N. Fisher 1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, 2 Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, National Park Service, Thousand Oaks, California, United States of America, 3 San Diego Field Station, U.S. Geological Survey, San Diego, California, United States of America Abstract Background: Urbanization is a major cause of habitat fragmentation worldwide. Ecological and conservation theory predicts many potential impacts of habitat fragmentation on natural populations, including genetic impacts. Habitat fragmentation by urbanization causes populations of animals and plants to be isolated in patches of suitable habitat that are surrounded by non-native vegetation or severely altered vegetation, asphalt, concrete, and human structures. This can lead to genetic divergence between patches and in turn to decreased genetic diversity within patches through genetic drift and inbreeding. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examined population genetic patterns using microsatellites in four common vertebrate species, three lizards and one bird, in highly fragmented urban southern California. Despite significant phylogenetic, ecological, and mobility differences between these species, all four showed similar and significant reductions in gene flow over relatively short geographic and temporal scales. For all four species, t