Abstract
Quantifying the relationship between demographic patterns and genetic diversity are important in predicting temporal population genetic changes. To make predictions there must be an understanding of the relationship between census size, the effective number of breeders (Nb) and effective population size (Ne). We evaluate the temporal genetic variation between three populations of Ambystoma salamanders, and compare genetic and demographic estimates of Nb and Ne. We sampled two wetlands, RB and GB for A. opacum and sampled A. talpoideum at RB, over a 20-year period. Ambystoma opacum colonized the RB wetland in 1980 and the population has steadily expanded as A. talpoideum has declined towards local extinction; the GB population of A. opacum has remained relatively large and stable over this same time period. Genetic variation at 10 microsatellites remained stable at each population over the sampled time frame, and did not reflect changes in population size. Genetic estimates of Nb also did not reflect demographic trends, and were lower than demographic estimates of Nb. Genetic methods of determining Ne gave similar estimates to demographic methods. Our findings indicate that sample sizes and number of markers typically used in genetic studies do not provide enough precision to monitor population size changes in amphibians, which likely violate many of the assumptions of Nb and Ne estimation models. These findings should be considered when using Ne in conservation and management assessments of amphibian populations.
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Acknowledgments
We thank D. Weisrock, C. Linnen and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on this manuscript. We also thank the numerous people who have assisted with data collection, entry, and management of the 35-year Rainbow Bay study, especially: J. Pechmann, B. Metts, A. Chazal, A. Dancewicz-Helmers, R. Estes, J. Greene, R. Semlitsch, J. McGregor-Morton, G. Moran, and W. Gibbons. This research was supported by U. S. Department of Energy under Financial Assistance Award Number DE-FC09-07SR22506 to the University of Georgia Research Foundation, and was also made possible by the DOE’s Set Aside Program and status of the SRS as a National Environmental Research Park (NERP).
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Nunziata, S.O., Scott, D.E. & Lance, S.L. Temporal genetic and demographic monitoring of pond-breeding amphibians in three contrasting population systems. Conserv Genet 16, 1335–1344 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-015-0743-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-015-0743-z