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Landscape genetics matches with behavioral ecology and brings new insight on the functional connectivity in Mediterranean mouflon

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Abstract

Context

In natural populations, gene flow often represents a key factor in determining and maintaining genetic diversity. In a worldwide context of habitat fragmentation, assessing the relative contribution of landscape features to gene flow thus appears crucial for sustainable management of species.

Objective

We addressed this issue in Mediterranean mouflon (Ovis gmelini musimon × Ovis sp.) by combining previous knowledge on behavioral ecology with landscape genetics. We also assessed how sex-specific behavioral differences translated in term of functional connectivity in both sexes.

Methods

We relied on 239 individuals genotyped at 16 microsatellite markers. We applied a model optimization approach in a causal modeling framework of landscape genetics to test for the effects on gene flow of habitat types and linear landscape features previously identified as important for movements and habitat selection in both sexes. Five resistance values were alternately assigned to these landscape characteristics leading to a comprehensive set of resistance surfaces.

Results

Isolation by resistance shaped female gene flow, supporting the central role of linear landscape features as behavioral barriers for animal movements. Conversely, no isolation by resistance was detected in males. Although a lack of statistical power cannot be discarded to explain this result, it tended to confirm that males are less influenced by landscape structures during the mating period.

Conclusions

Combining previous knowledge on behavioral ecology with results from landscape genetics was decisive in assessing functional landscape connectivity in both sexes. These results highlighted the need to perform sex-specific studies for management and conservation of dimorphic species.

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Data availability

Microsatellite and spatial data sets will be available from the Dryad Digital Repository.

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Acknowledgements

We warmly thank all the professionals from the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (Service Départemental 34, Jeanne Duhayer and Christian Itty) and numerous trainees for their technical support in trapping, tagging, sampling, and monitoring VHF and GPS-collared mouflons. We would like to thank Dominique Dubray for his involvement in the deployment of GPS collars, all the technical personnel of LBBE for helping with laboratory steps of the study, and the Antagene laboratory (Limonest, France, www.antagene.com) for DNA extraction and genotyping. We would also like to thank Elodie Bonneau and Julie Andru for the first laboratory and genetic analyses, Patrick James and the James lab members for helpful comments on the first draft of the manuscript, and Denise Mirat for checking the English. We also gratefully acknowledge IN2P3 and the CC LBBE/PRABI for providing computer resources, and the bioinformatics team of LBBE for their advice on computational optimization of scripts. Finally, we thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments on the manuscript. This research project and E. Portanier’s collaboration were funded by the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, Vetagro Sup and LBBE.

Funding

This study was funded by the Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, VetagroSup and Laboratoire de Biométrie et de Biologie Evolutive (Grant Numbers 2013/20/6171 and 2015/14/6171).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Univ Lyon, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR 5558, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Elodie Portanier, Gilles Bourgoin & Sébastien Devillard

  2. Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage, Unité Ongulés Sauvages, 5 allée de Bethléem, Z.I. Mayencin, 38610, Gières, France

    Elodie Portanier, Mathieu Garel, Pascal Marchand & Daniel Maillard

  3. Université de Lyon, VetAgro Sup, Campus Vétérinaire de Lyon, 1 Avenue Bourgelat, BP 83, 69280, Marcy l’Etoile, France

    Elodie Portanier & Gilles Bourgoin

  4. Département de Sciences Biologiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, H3C3J7, Canada

    Jeremy Larroque

Authors
  1. Elodie Portanier
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  2. Jeremy Larroque
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  3. Mathieu Garel
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  4. Pascal Marchand
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  5. Daniel Maillard
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  6. Gilles Bourgoin
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  7. Sébastien Devillard
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Contributions

EP, MG, PM, DM, GB and SD conceptualized and designed the research. EP, JL, MG, PM and SD conducted data analyses. All authors contributed in interpreting the results and writing the paper.

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Correspondence to Elodie Portanier.

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Portanier, E., Larroque, J., Garel, M. et al. Landscape genetics matches with behavioral ecology and brings new insight on the functional connectivity in Mediterranean mouflon. Landscape Ecol 33, 1069–1085 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-018-0650-z

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