Riparian areas potentially provide crucial corridors through fragmented landscape for black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla) source-sink system

Waste not, want not: microsatellites remain an economical and informative technology for conservation genetics

“…For direct comparison, the microsatellite dataset (n = 338) was subsampled to the same 185 individuals for which SNP data was produced. We designed the following analysis methods to parallel the microsatellite analyses described in and Hauser & Leberg (2020) with minor modifications for large SNP datasets.…”

“…Between-site variables (elevation, Euclidean distance, water, development, forest, scrub, open, agriculture, and riparian) were transformed into resistance surfaces in CIRCUITSCAPE (McRae, 2006). We optimized the valuation of each resistance surface (see Hauser et al, 2020) for more details on optimization) using a linear-mixed effect model (R package lme4; Bates et al, 2015) with Dps as the response variable, each resistance value as the fixed effect, and site as the random effect. Only the optimized resistance values for a given variable, the value with the lowest AICc score via the univariate linear-mixed effect models, were then used in subsequent hypotheses testing.…”

“…From our analyses, riparian areas facilitated gene flow (ß = 0.022, respectively), scrub habitat facilitated gene flow (ß = 0.0087), water impeded gene flow (ß = -0.033) and development impeded gene flow (ß = -0.0038). The top models from Hauser et al (2020) were 'Agriculture + Development + Open' and 'Riparian +Agriculture + Open'. Hauser et al (2020) indicated that agriculture and riparian areas facilitated gene flow while development and open habitat impeded gene flow.…”

“…In this study, we repeated microsatellite-based population and landscape genetic analyses (Hauser & Leberg, 2020; with SNPs developed from ddRAD sequencing (Peterson et al, 2012). The blackcapped vireo (Vireo atricapilla; BCVI) source-sink metapopulation in central Texas Walker et al, 2016) serves as an ideal non-model system for marker comparison.…”

“…The highest density of BCVI exists around Fort Hood in central Texas, where the species has been monitored carefully as a protected species (ESA Endangered from 1970Cimprich & Kostecke, 2006;Wilsey et al, 2014). The source-sink system comprises fragmented habitat patches driven by brown-headed cowbird parasitism (Walker et al, 2016) and mediated by riparian corridors (Hauser & Leberg, 2020).…”