Sammendrag
A detailed understanding of population connectivity and the effects of anthropogenic stressors on genetic diversity and structure are important for the conservation and management of wild populations. The wild Svalbard reindeer (Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus) is an island sub-species with particularly low genetic variation. Nevertheless, studies indicate genetic differentiation over short distances, possibly due to sedentary behaviour and landscape barriers (i.e. glaciers, mountains, sea). In addition, major human impact can be expected through historical overharvest, local extinctions and re-introduction programs, as well as climate change (e.g. sea-ice loss). In this study, we use a large panel of populations to evaluate this impact by quantifying genetic diversity and structure, and the connectivity among populations, applying landscape genetics approaches. In the initial round of analysis, we used 152 individuals from eight populations genotyped at 21 polymorphic microsatellite loci. Our results indicate overall low genetic diversity which decreased with distance from central Spitsbergen, where high connectivity and large population sizes may restrict genetic drift. Pairwise genetic differentiation increased strongly with distance and was generally lower for re-introduced populations from a common source population. Accordingly, clustering analysis suggested five genetically distinct groups. More samples will be analysed in order to quantify the effects of landscape barriers (such as open sea) on population connectivity across Svalbard, effective population sizes and genetic drift based on population size estimates, and bottlenecks induced by past overharvest.
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