When log-dwellers meet loggers: impacts of forest fragmentation on two endemic log-dwelling beetles in southeastern Australia

Schmuki, Christina; Vorburger, Christoph; Runciman, David; MacEachern, Sean; Sunnucks, Paul

doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2005.02849.x

Cited by 13 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…At an ecosystem level, they are likely to be important habitats for refugia, breeding of smaller mammals and invertebrates (e.g., Banks et al. 2005a; Schmuki et al. 2006), or spatially dependent evolutionary processes (e.g., range expansions or shifts) that may occur in response to natural disturbances or environmental changes (Soulé et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limited ecological connectivity of an arboreal marsupial across a forest/plantation landscape despite apparent resilience to fragmentation

et al. 2011

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Demographic and genetic replenishment of populations through the exchange of individuals is essential for their persistence. Habitat loss and fragmentation can reduce the permeability of landscapes, hinder dispersal and compromise the genetic integrity of populations over time. We examined ecological connectivity in an arboreal marsupial, the common ringtail possum (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) in fragmented forests of southeastern Australia. This species is potentially robust to fragmentation based on its presence in degraded landscapes and known use of plantations for foraging and nesting. Using 312 individuals screened at 15 microsatellites, we measured dispersal and gene flow across seven native Eucalyptus forest remnants surrounded by exotic Pinus radiata plantations and three sites within a large continuous forest. The permeability of the pine matrix to dispersing possums was significantly lower than that of the native forest. Small, isolated patches exhibited signatures of genetic drift, having lower heterozygosity and allelic richness than possums in large patches. Most (87%) possums were born in their sampled patch or dispersed only short distances into neighbouring remnants. The continuous forest was identified as an important source of immigrants only for proximate patches (within 2.5 km), thus emphasizing for the common ringtail possum and more specialized arboreal mammals the need to conserve large, proximate forest remnants. Our findings highlight the importance of using genetic tools to understand the long-term biological consequences of fragmentation for effective management.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limited ecological connectivity of an arboreal marsupial across a forest/plantation landscape despite apparent resilience to fragmentation

et al. 2011

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“…Reduced dispersal as a result of habitat fragmentation can arrest supplementation of declining populations and colonization of vacant habitat, alter social behavior and age class distributions, and result in loss of genetic diversity, inbreeding, and increased risk Manuscript of local extinction (Frankham 2005, Sunnucks 2011). However, bird assemblages that remain in forest fragments mainly comprise species that either increase dispersal distances after fragmentation or are tolerant of the non-forest matrix (Van Houtan et al 2007, Lees andPeres 2008), and evidence that dispersal distance may be greater in fragmented habitat is fairly common (Schmuki et al 2006, Coulon et al 2010). Therefore, even species declining in fragmented landscapes could have responded to fragmentation by maintaining or increasing dispersal distances.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genes and song: genetic and social connections in fragmented habitat in a woodland bird with limited dispersal

Pavlova

Amos

Goretskaia

et al. 2012

Ecology

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Understanding the processes leading to population declines in fragmented landscapes is essential for successful conservation management. However, isolating the influence of disparate processes, and dispersal in particular, is challenging. The Grey Shrike-thrush, Colluricincla harmonica, is a sedentary woodland-dependent songbird, with learned vocalizations whose incidence in suitable habitat patches falls disproportionally with decline in tree cover in the landscape. Although it has been suggested that gaps in tree cover might act as barriers to its dispersal, the species remains in many remnants of native vegetation in agricultural landscapes, suggesting that it may have responded to habitat removal and fragmentation by maintaining or even increasing dispersal distances. We quantified population connectivity of the Grey Shrike-thrush in a system fragmented over more than 120 years using genetic (microsatellites) and acoustic (song types) data. First, we tested for population genetic and acoustic structure at regional and local scales in search of barriers to dispersal or gene flow and signals of local spatial structuring indicative of restricted dispersal or localized acoustic similarity. Then we tested for effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on genetic and acoustic connectivity by fitting alternative models of mobility (isolation-by-distance [the null model] and reduced and increased movement models) across treeless vs. treed areas. Birds within -5 km of each other had more similar genotypes and song types than those farther away, suggesting that dispersal and song matching are limited in the region. Despite restricted dispersal detected for females (but not males), populations appeared to be connected by gene flow and displayed some cultural (acoustic) connectivity across the region. Fragmentation did not appear to impact greatly the dispersal of the Grey Shrike-thrush: none of the mobility models fit the genetic distances of males, whereas for females, an isolation-by-distance model could not be rejected in favor of the models of reduced or increased movement through treeless gaps. However, dissimilarities of the song types were more consistent with the model of reduced cultural connectivity through treeless areas, suggesting that fragmentation impedes song type sharing in the Grey Shrike-thrush. Our paper demonstrates that habitat fragmentation hinders important population processes in an Australian woodland bird even though its dispersal is not detectably impacted.

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“…Other genetic studies have demonstrated that fragmentation reduces dispersal more for habitat specialist beetles than for generalist ones (Brouat et al . 2003; Schmuki et al . 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpected persistence on habitat islands: genetic signatures reveal dispersal of a eucalypt‐dependent marsupial through a hostile pine matrix

2007

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Several factors contribute to the extinction of populations in fragmented habitat but key ones include habitat loss and disruptions to connectivity. Aspects of the ecology of greater gliders (Petauroides volans), along with observations of their response to native forest clearance at a site in southeastern Australia, lead to the prediction in the 1960s that the species would not persist in the replacement exotic pine plantation. However, 35 years later, the species was observed in many remnant native vegetation patches retained within the plantation boundary, albeit at a lower occupancy rate than at matched continuous forest control sites. To determine the role of patch connectivity in persistence of P. volans in remnants, we employed 12 microsatellite markers to genotype individuals from 11 remnants, three contemporary nearby continuous native eucalypt forest sites and a sample collected during native vegetation clearance at the site in the 1960s. Patch samples retained substantially more genetic diversity than expected under an isolation model, suggesting that patches have experienced some immigration. Five putative patch immigrants--two from sampled sites 1- and 7-km distant, and three from unresolved or unsampled localities--were identified via genetic parentage and population assignment analyses. Patch populations displayed varying levels of admixture in Bayesian genetic structure analyses, with the oldest and most geographically isolated ones showing the least admixture, suggesting they have experienced relatively little immigration. Evidence of at least some immigration into patches may explain why P. volans has persisted contrary to expectation in heavily fragmented habitat.

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When log-dwellers meet loggers: impacts of forest fragmentation on two endemic log-dwelling beetles in southeastern Australia

Cited by 13 publications

References 59 publications

Limited ecological connectivity of an arboreal marsupial across a forest/plantation landscape despite apparent resilience to fragmentation

Limited ecological connectivity of an arboreal marsupial across a forest/plantation landscape despite apparent resilience to fragmentation

Genes and song: genetic and social connections in fragmented habitat in a woodland bird with limited dispersal

Unexpected persistence on habitat islands: genetic signatures reveal dispersal of a eucalypt‐dependent marsupial through a hostile pine matrix

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