the suitability of the resource-based definition of the habitat. Therefore, we argue that this approach should be favored for species of conservation concern. Although most conclusions so far have emerged from butterfly studies, the resource-based definition of the habitat should also be ecologically relevant to many other organisms.
Understanding the functioning of natural metapopulations at relevant spatial and temporal scales is necessary to accurately feed both theoretical eco-evolutionary models and conservation plans. One key metric to describe the dynamics of metapopulations is dispersal rate. It can be estimated with either direct field estimates of individual movements or with indirect molecular methods, but the two approaches do not necessarily match. We present a field study in a large natural metapopulation of the butterfly Boloria eunomia in Belgium surveyed over three generations using synchronized demographic and genetic datasets with the aim to characterize its genetic structure, its dispersal dynamics, and its demographic stability. By comparing the census and effective population sizes, and the estimates of dispersal rates, we found evidence of stability at several levels: constant inter-generational ranking of population sizes without drastic historical changes, stable genetic structure and geographically-influenced dispersal movements. Interestingly, contemporary dispersal estimates matched between direct field and indirect genetic assessments. We discuss the eco-evolutionary mechanisms that could explain the described stability of the metapopulation, and suggest that destabilizing agents like inter-generational fluctuations in population sizes could be controlled by a long adaptive history of the species to its dynamic local environment. We finally propose methodological avenues to further improve the match between demographic and genetic estimates of dispersal.
Ce texte s’inscrit dans le vaste chantier de reprise des expériences micropolitiques, nommées ici « praxis rebelles », à partir de leurs visées inédites de constitution d’un collectif ne répondant plus à la grammaire du politique de la tradition révolutionnaire et posant l’auto-organisation face à la violence destructrice du capital sur la vie. C’est le Collectif Socialiste de Patients (S.P.K.) qui vint au début des années 70 produire une coupure subjective hautement intensive, devant contaminer l’ensemble du champ social afin d’affirmer la lutte de la vie quotidienne contre l’économie de mort.
Population genetics is used in a wide variety of fields such as ecology and biodiversity conservation. How estimated genetic characteristics of natural populations can be influenced by the sampling design has been a long‐standing concern. Multiple simulation and empirical studies illustrated the influence of both sample size and polymorphism of markers. However, our review of studies on butterfly population genetics indicates no consensus on sample size for the estimation of genetic diversity or differentiation. Furthermore, other aspects of sampling design (sex ratio and timing of sampling) were not addressed and their potential impact on genetic parameter estimates rarely explored. Using a large empirical dataset (with spatial and temporal replicates) collected on a butterfly species, Boloria aquilonaris, as well as simulated datasets reflecting (1) three scenarios of migration–genetic drift equilibrium and (2) one scenario of parameter stabilization after 100,000 generations, we quantified the impacts of three aspects of genetic sampling design (namely, sample size, sex ratio and timing of sampling) on the estimation of allele frequencies and its potential downstream impact on the estimation of genetic parameters. With empirical data, we found that sample size and timing of sampling strongly affected the accuracy of allele frequencies and the downstream analyses, while sex ratio did not. Our results were consistent across spatial and temporal replicates. Also, with simulated data, we showed that the genetic sampling design had limited effect in systems where dispersal outweighs genetic drift, while it can have major consequences on our understanding of the genetic diversity and population differentiation in systems dominated by genetic drift (such as most study systems with conservation concerns). We advocate for careful consideration of all aspects of the sampling design in population genetics studies, that is a sufficient number of samples, while ensuring similar sex ratio among sampling locations and collecting with timing appropriate to the question under study. This is particularly important when the study aims at species conservation.
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