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A 40-year-old divided highway does not prevent gene flow in the alpine newt Ichthyosaura alpestris

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Abstract

Roads are of major concern in conservation biology, as they are known to restrict animal movements through landscape fragmentation, and may therefore impact genetic patterns in native terrestrial organisms. We assessed the effect of two large-scale transportation infrastructures (LTIs), a 40-year-old highway and a 30 year-old high-speed railway, on the spatial genetic structure of the alpine newt Ichthyosaura alpestris, a highly nomadic amphibian. Genetic data were gathered following a targeted individual-based sampling scheme and analysed using both overlay and correlative methods. While simulations suggested that the highway may be old enough for a significant barrier effect to be detected, LTIs were never detected as barriers to gene flow: inferred genetic boundaries rather coincided with transition zones between major landscape entities. Furthermore, spatial principal component analysis, a method designed to reveal cryptic genetic spatial patterns in high gene flow species, counter-intuitively suggested that the highway may act as a potential dispersal corridor in low-quality habitats, thus challenging traditional hypotheses on road impacts in amphibians. Our study showed that considering local interactions between species, infrastructures and landscape-specific characteristics is essential for better understanding the potential impacts of roads on movement patterns in terrestrial organisms.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie (ANRT, agreement 2/2009), Réseau Ferré de France (RFF), Autoroutes Paris-Rhin-Rhône (APRR) and the ECOSPHERE company. It was conducted in accordance with French laws and with the approval of the Préfectures de Saône-et-Loire, de Côte-d’Or and de l’Yonne. We warmly thank T. Jombart for helpful comments about sPCA results, P. Allemand for his help in Matlab programing, E. Landguth for clues as to the use of CDPOP and J. Van Buskirk for details about his own study. We gratefully acknowledge support from the CNRS/IN2P3 Computing Center (Lyon/Villeurbanne - France), for providing part of the computing ressources needed for this work. In addition, we thank C. De Fazio, G. Perez, F. Revollon, F. Ribette, J. Mangin and O. Grolet for their precious help and support in the field and laboratory, A. Corrigan for proofreading, and two anonymous reviewers for comments that greatly improved this manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. Jérôme G. Prunier

    Present address: Institute of Life Sciences (ISV), Université Catholique de Louvain, 4-5 Croix du Sud, bte L7.07.14, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ecosphère, 94100, Saint Maur des Fossés, France

    Jérôme G. Prunier

  2. Université de Lyon, UMR5023 Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Naturels et Anthropisés, Université Lyon 1, ENTPE, CNRS, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Jérôme G. Prunier, Bernard Kaufmann, Jean-Paul Léna & Pierre Joly

  3. Université de Lyon, UMR 5205 Laboratoire d’Informatique en Image et Systèmes d’information, Bat. Nautibus, Université Lyon 1, CNRS, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Serge Fenet

  4. Université Joseph Fourier, Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, CNRS, UMR 5553, 2233 Rue de la Piscine, 38041, Grenoble Cedex 9, France

    François Pompanon

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  1. Jérôme G. Prunier
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  6. Pierre Joly
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Correspondence to Jérôme G. Prunier.

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Prunier, J.G., Kaufmann, B., Léna, JP. et al. A 40-year-old divided highway does not prevent gene flow in the alpine newt Ichthyosaura alpestris . Conserv Genet 15, 453–468 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-013-0553-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-013-0553-0

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