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Landscape drivers of connectivity for a forest rodent in a coffee agroecosystem

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Abstract

Context

The majority of remaining tropical forests exist as fragments embedded in a matrix of agricultural production. Understanding the effects of these agricultural landscapes on species dispersal is crucial in the development of successful conservation planning.

Objective

The objective of this study was to examine the influence of five landscape features within a coffee agroecosystem (i.e., slope, elevation, streams, riparian effect, and tree cover) on Heteromys desmarestianus goldmani gene flow. We expected that landscape variables linked to more intense agricultural management (e.g., low tree cover, riparian effect) would reduce gene flow in H. d. goldmani.

Methods

This study was conducted in a 4 km × 2 km area within the coffee growing region of Soconusco in Chiapas, Mexico. We used 12 microsatellite markers to calculate individual-based estimates of gene flow as a measure of dispersal. We used resistance surface modelling, using ResistanceGA (Peterman in Methods Ecol Evol 9:1638–1647, 2018) to identify if any of the landscape features analyzed explained the patterns of gene flow.

Results

Our results showed patterns of population structure and weak isolation-by-distance, as found previously for H. d. goldmani by Otero Jiménez et al. (Conserv Genet 19:495–499, 2018). Slope and tree cover were the two landscape features that could best explain gene flow patterns. More specifically, intermediate slopes and tree cover represent the lowest resistance to gene flow for H. d. goldmani and, thus, have a role in promoting gene flow in this species.

Conclusion

This study highlights the potential of integrating molecular and landscape data to explore population connectivity of elusive species, such as terrestrial small mammals. Our study adds to the growing body of literature in landscape genetics by demonstrating that a rodent species shows population structure at a small scale resulting from landscape factors linked to agricultural management.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Consuelo Lorenzo and El Colegio de la Frontera Sur-San Cristobal in Chiapas, Mexico for their help in sample collection. Thanks to Dr. Carlos J. Anderson for his valuable comments on the manuscript and support with statistical analysis and Dr. M. Raquel Marchan Rivadeneira for assistance with genetic analysis. We thank the managers, farmers and owners of Finca Irlanda and Finca Hamburgo in Chiapas, Mexico for allowing us to conduct this study and for their support with fieldwork. This work received financial support from the University of Michigan Center for Latin America and Caribbean Studies Tinker Field Research Grant and the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School. Beatriz Otero Jiménez was supported in part by University of Michigan Genetics Training Program (T32-GM07544).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    Beatriz Otero Jiménez & Priscilla K. Tucker

  2. Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    Beatriz Otero Jiménez & Priscilla K. Tucker

  3. Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

    Kevin Li

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  1. Beatriz Otero Jiménez
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Correspondence to Beatriz Otero Jiménez.

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Otero Jiménez, B., Li, K. & Tucker, P.K. Landscape drivers of connectivity for a forest rodent in a coffee agroecosystem. Landscape Ecol 35, 1249–1261 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-00999-6

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