Landscape genetics since 2003: status, challenges and future directions

A scientific symposium on landscape genetics, held at the 2013 IALE Europe Conference in Manchester UK (September 2-8, 2013), highlighted status, challenges and future avenues in the field. Key topics included analytical aspects in landscape genetics, conceptual progress and application of landscape genetics for conservation management. First, analytical aspects referred to statistical relationships between genetic and landscape data. It was suggested that linear mixed models or Bayesian approaches are particularly promising due to more appropriate and powerful ways for analyzing landscape effects on genetic variation. Second, supplementing neutral genetic variation with adaptive genetic variation is very promising. However, research needs to go beyond the identification of genomic regions under selection and provide information on the ecological function of adaptive genetic regions. Conceptually, endogenous processes (e.g., life-history attributes such as dispersal) require consideration as supplementary factors in shaping the genetic variation in addition to landscapes. Also, the temporal dimension in landscapes for both the past and the future should be given increased attention as the genetic responses to landscape change may be non-simultaneous, resulting in time lags. As for applied conservation management, landscape genetics can provide important baseline information such as basic data on species movement in a spatial context, assessments of the spatial need for management efforts, or evaluations of the effectiveness of already existing management measures

Novel pollen analogue technique shows bumblebees display low floral constancy and prefer sites with high floral diversity

This project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Eva Crane Trust.Context There have been dramatic global declines in pollinating insects. A common land management intervention to support wild pollinators is to plant non-crop flowering plants (‘pollinator planting’). However, there are limited data on which species or spatial arrangement of planting provide maximum benefit to wild pollinators. Objectives Here we investigate which flowering species and locations are visited by free-foraging Bombus terrestris (buff-tailed bumblebees) in species-rich semi-natural grassland and woodland. Methods Two study nests of buff-tailed bumblebees were established in Wytham Woods, UK. Pollen analogue pigments were sprayed on open flowers in the study area over a period of two months, with unique colours used to identify separate sections of the study area. Pollen load analysis was used to identify forage species and foraging locations. Results Bumblebees showed low flower constancy, visiting five flower species per trip on average, and as a group the sampled bumblebees visited 36 of the 49 plant species identified in study area surveys. Many individuals foraged in multiple, spatially-discrete locations during single trips. Conclusions The positive relationship between floral diversity and pollen load species diversity, and the positive relationship between site floral diversity and frequency of visitation, suggest behavioural strategies that maximize the diversity of flower species visited, in line with the energetic costs and benefits hypothesis. This supports recommendations for pollinator plantings with high species diversity, potentially spread across many small forage areas across the landscape.Peer reviewe

Pollinator-flower interactions in gardens during the covid 19 pandemic lockdown of 2020

During the main COVID-19 global pandemic lockdown period of 2020 an impromptu set of pollination ecologists came together via social media and personal contacts to carry out standardised surveys of the flower visits and plants in gardens. The surveys involved 67 rural, suburban and urban gardens, of various sizes, ranging from 61.18° North in Norway to 37.96° South in Australia, resulting in a data set of 25,174 rows, with each row being a unique interaction record for that date/site/plant species, and comprising almost 47,000 visits to flowers, as well as records of flowers that were not visited by pollinators, for over 1,000 species and varieties belonging to more than 460 genera and 96 plant families. The more than 650 species of flower visitors belong to 12 orders of invertebrates and four of vertebrates. In this first publication from the project, we present a brief description of the data and make it freely available for any researchers to use in the future, the only restriction being that they cite this paper in the first instance. The data generated from these global surveys will provide scientific evidence to help us understand the role that private gardens (in urban, rural and suburban areas) can play in conserving insect pollinators and identify management actions to enhance their potential

Landscape genetics of the endangered Chilean tree, Gomortega keule

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Landscape genetics since 2003: status, challenges and future directions

A scientific symposium on landscape genetics, held at the 2013 IALE Europe Conference in Manchester UK (September 2–8, 2013), highlighted status, challenges and future avenues in the field. Key topics included analytical aspects in landscape genetics, conceptual progress and application of landscape genetics for conservation management. First, analytical aspects referred to statistical relationships between genetic and landscape data. It was suggested that linear mixed models or Bayesian approaches are particularly promising due to more appropriate and powerful ways for analyzing landscape effects on genetic variation. Second, supplementing neutral genetic variation with adaptive genetic variation is very promising. However, research needs to go beyond the identification of genomic regions under selection and provide information on the ecological function of adaptive genetic regions. Conceptually, endogenous processes (e.g., life-history attributes such as dispersal) require consideration as supplementary factors in shaping the genetic variation in addition to landscapes. Also, the temporal dimension in landscapes for both the past and the future should be given increased attention as the genetic responses to landscape change may be non-simultaneous, resulting in time lags. As for applied conservation management, landscape genetics can provide important baseline information such as basic data on species movement in a spatial context, assessments of the spatial need for management efforts, or evaluations of the effectiveness of already existing management measures

Flower and fruit production and insect pollination of the endangered Chilean tree, Gomortega keule in native forest, exotic pine plantation and agricultural environments Producción de flores y frutas y polinización por insectos de Gomortega keule en bosque nativo y en terrenos agrícolas, un árbol chileno en peligro de extinción

This study was undertaken to discover whether patterns of flower and fruit production for Gomortega keule, an endangered Chilean tree, differ between exotic pine plantation, agricultural and native forest environments. A pilot study was also undertaken to identify the primary pollinators of G. keule. Although similar proportions of G. keule trees flowered in the agricultural and native forest áreas, more trees in the agricultural sites produced fruit compared to trees in the native forest sites. Flowering and fruiting of G. keule was extremely rare in the exotic pine plantations. Our data show that G. keule flowers are predominantly visited by syrphid flies in March-April, and that syrphids carry a greater proportion of G. keule pollen than the other insects collected. Native forest and low intensity agricultural systems appear to provide habitat in which syrphids forage and G. keule is able to produce fruit successfully, but exotic pine plantation does not; suggesting that a landscape made up of a mosaic of different landuse types is not necessarily inimical to the continued reproduction of G. keule, but that the combination and types of landuses and intensity of management must be carefully considered.<br>El presente estudio fue realizado con el objetivo de establecer si los patrones de producción de flores y frutos de Gomortega keule (Gomortegaceae), un árbol chileno en peligro de extinción, son diferentes entre áreas de plantaciones de pinos exóticos, terrenos agrícolas y áreas de bosque nativo. También fue llevado a cabo un estudio piloto para identificar los principales polinizadores de G. keule. A pesar de que en tierras agrícolas y en áreas de bosque nativo floreció una proporción similar de árboles de G. keule, en zonas agrícolas fructificó una mayor proporción en comparación con los árboles de áreas de bosque nativo. La floración y fructificación de G. keule fue extremadamente rara en las áreas de plantaciones de pinos exóticos. Nuestros datos indican que las flores de G. keule son visitadas predominantemente por sírfidos durante marzo y abril, y que dichos sírfidos transportan una mayor proporción de polen de G. keule que cualquier otro insecto recolectado. El bosque nativo y los sistemas agrícolas no intensivos parecen proporcionar a los sírfidos un habitat en el cual alimentarse y donde G. keule es capaz de fructificar, lo cual no sucede en las plantaciones de pinos exóticos. Esto sugiere que un paisaje compuesto por un mosaico de diferentes tipos de uso del suelo no es necesariamente hostil para la reproducción continua de G. keule, pero que la combinación y tipos de uso del suelo e intensidad de su manejo deben ser consideradas cuidadosamente

Data from: Reconstruction of a beech population bottleneck using archival demographic information and Bayesian analysis of genetic data

Range expansion and contraction has occurred in the history of most species and can seriously impact patterns of genetic diversity. Historical data about range change are rare and generally appropriate for studies at large scales, whereas the individual pollen and seed dispersal events that form the basis of geneflow and colonization generally occur at a local scale. In this study we investigated range change in Fagus sylvatica on Mont Ventoux, France, using historical data from 1838 to the present and Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) analyses of genetic data. From the historical data we identified a population minimum in 1845 and located remnant populations at least 200 years old. The ABC analysis selected a demographic scenario with three populations, corresponding to two remnant populations and one area of recent expansion. It also identified expansion from a smaller ancestral population but did not find that this expansion followed a population bottleneck, as suggested by the historical data. Despite a strong support to the selected scenario for our dataset, the ABC approach showed a low power to discriminate among scenarios on average and a low ability to accurately estimate effective population sizes and divergence dates, probably due to the temporal scale of the study. This study provides an unusual opportunity to test ABC analysis in a system with a well documented demographic history and identify discrepancies between the results of historical, classical population genetic and ABC analyses. The results also provide valuable insights into genetic processes at work at a fine spatial and temporal scale in range change and colonization

DataMEC-11-0816.R1

Individuals genotypes of 1916 European Beech trees at 13 microsatellite marker