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Genetic erosion in a stenotopic heathland ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae): a matter of habitat size?

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Abstract

Two centuries ago large areas of north-west Europe were covered by coherent heathlands which hosted numerous specialized species. Changes in land use made heathlands fragmented and rare, consequently, they are in the focus of nature conservation efforts today. But how large should remaining heathland patches be in order to secure the survival of populations of specialized species? We investigated the genetic diversity at five allozyme loci of Poecilus lepidus, a flightless and stenotopic heathland ground beetle. 29 populations from differently sized heathland patches in north-west Germany were analyzed. Results show a weak but significant genetic differentiation and no evidence for isolation by distance or other patterns of spatial autocorrelation. Linear regression analysis revealed significant relationships between patch size, allelic richness, number of alleles and expected heterozygosity. These findings are explained by severe habitat fragmentation together with strong fluctuations in population size which have been reported for this species in the past. To conserve the vast majority of the species’ genetic diversity for a period of 100 years we suggest to maintain heathland patches of at least 50 ha in size.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the authorities of Weser-Ems and Lüneburg for the permits issued. M. P. was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Inland sand ecosystems: dynamics and restoration, BMBF 01LN003). We thank E. E. van Loon for help with the ARES package and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Chemistry, Leuphana University Lüneburg, 21335, Lüneburg, Germany

    Claudia Drees, Werner Härdtle, Andrea Matern, Markus Persigehl & Thorsten Assmann

  2. Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Claudia Drees

  3. Dutch Butterfly Conservation, Postbus 506, 6700 AM, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Henk De Vries

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  1. Claudia Drees
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Correspondence to Claudia Drees.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3, 4 and 5.

Table 3 Sample sites with their geographical location, habitat sizes and number of individuals analyzed
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Table 4 Results of the population genetic analysis of P. lepidus in the Emsland region
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Table 5 Results of the population genetic analysis of P. lepidus in the Lüneburg Heath
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Drees, C., De Vries, H., Härdtle, W. et al. Genetic erosion in a stenotopic heathland ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae): a matter of habitat size?. Conserv Genet 12, 105–117 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-009-9994-x

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