Optimization procedures for establishing reserve networks for biodiversity conservation taking into account population genetic structure

Abstract

Conservation genetics has been focused on the ecological and evolutionary persistence of targets (species or other intraspecific units), especially when dealing with narrow-ranged species, and no generalized solution regarding the problem of where to concentrate conservation efforts for multiple genetic targets has yet been achieved. Broadly distributed and abundant species allow the identification of evolutionary significant units, management units, phylogeographical units or other spatial patterns in genetic variability, including those generated by effects of habitat fragmentation caused by human activities. However, these genetic units are rarely considered as priority conservation targets in regional conservation planning procedures. In this paper, we discuss a theoretical framework in which target persistence and genetic representation of targets defined using multiple genetic criteria can be explicitly incorporated into the broad-scale reserve network models used to optimize biodiversity conservation based on multiple species data. When genetic variation can be considered discrete in geographical space, the solution is straightforward, and each spatial unit must be considered as a distinct target. But methods for dealing with continuous genetic variation in space are not trivial and optimization procedures must still be developed. We present a simple heuristic and sequential algorithm to deal with this problem by combining multiple networks of local populations of multiple species in which minimum separation distance between conserved populations is a function of spatial autocorrelation patterns of genetic variability within each species.

Networks of spatial genetic variation across species

“…Although methods dealing with continuous genetic variability within populations are difficult to implement, methods based on discrete genetic units are more easily handled (23). Our modularity approach defines discrete evolutionary unitsthe modules-that are amenable to incorporation in conservation planning.…”

Geographical Patterns in Biodiversity: Towards an Integration of Concepts and Methods from Genes to Species Diversity

“…For instance, optimization procedures can be used to find the smallest number of local populations (a network) that it is necessary to represent the species' genetic diversity (assuming, once again, that local populations were sampled throughout species' range) (Diniz-Filho & Telles 2006). This can be applied both to in situ and ex situ conservation, raising interesting possibilities for applying SCP.…”

“…If FBUs are defined at a very fine grain using too powerful techniques that reveal, for example, individual variation, rarity will become highly weighted and goals should be impossible to achieve. As pointed out by Diniz-Filho & Telles (2006), one can ask how to deal with population structure of these molecular variants across different species. Alternatively, genetic diversity within a species can also be a surrogate of biodiversity in general and, indeed, some recent studies have found significant correlations between genetic and species diversity (e.g., see also Sei et al 2009;Struebig et al 2011).…”

Toward Innovative Integrated Approaches for the Conservation of Mammals

“…Spatial conservation prioritization, for example, has been rarely supported by assessments of local and regional genetic diversity (but see Diniz-Filho & Telles 2006). Different disciplines capable of dealing with ecological and evolutionary processes at different levels of the biological hierarchy must interact to improve conservation strategies (Diniz-Filho et al 2008).…”