Genetic structure in the wood mouse and the bank vole: contrasting patterns in a human-modified and highly fragmented landscape

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation related to human activities modifies the distribution and the demographic trajectory of a species, often leading to genetic erosion and increased extinction risks. Understanding the impact of fragmentation on different species that co-exist in the same area becomes extremely important. Here we estimated the impact produced by different natural and anthropic landscape features on gene flow patterns in two sympatric species sampled in the same locations. Our main goal was to identify shared and private factors in the comparison among species. 199 bank voles and 194 wood mice were collected in 15 woodlands in a fragmented landscape, and genotyped at 8 and 7 microsatellites, respectively. Genetic variation and structure were analysed with standard approaches. Effective migration surfaces, isolation by resistance analysis, and regression with randomization were used to study isolation by distance and to estimate the relative importance of land cover elements on gene flow. Genetic structure was similarly affected by isolation by distance in these species, but the isolation-by-resistance analysis suggests that i) the wood mouse has constrained patterns of dispersal across woodland patches and facilitated connectivity in cultivated areas; ii) the bank vole connectivity is hindered by urban areas, while permeability is facilitated by the presence of woodlands, and cultivated terrains. Habitat loss and fragmentation can therefore influence genetic structure of small sympatric mammal species in different ways, and predicting the genetic consequences of these events using only one species may be misleading.