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Negligible impact of deer-induced habitat degradation on the genetic diversity of extant Bombus diversus populations in comparison with museum specimens

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Abstract

The genetic diversity of bumblebees can be adversely affected by habitat degradation. An overabundance of deer has altered the composition and diversity of herbaceous plants in many places of the world, resulting in decreases of herbaceous flowers. Populations of Bombus diversus may be strongly affected by this degradation of habitat in the Ashiu primary beech forest in Kyoto, Japan. To estimate the effects of deer browsing on B. diversus populations, we analyzed and compared the genetic diversity of the extant population in Ashiu to museum specimens collected prior to heavy deer browsing in Ashiu (1980s) and the extant population in Hyonosen primary beech forest in Tottori, Japan, which has not been as severely degraded by deer. We successfully amplified DNA from ~20-year-old museum specimens and determined the genetic diversity of B. diversus in Ashiu populations from the 1980s. Results were analyzed for indications of a bottleneck as well as estimates of N e, allelic richness, rare allelic richness, expected heterozygosity, and the effective number of alleles. Our findings did not reveal clear evidence of degradation in genetic diversity of the extant Ashiu population compared to the museum specimens or to the Hyonosen population. Thus, the Ashiu population of B. diversus appears to have maintained a level of genetic diversity during 20 years irrespective of habitat degradation and the levels have been similar to that of the Hyonosen population.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Tetsuro Yoshikawa, Kazuhide Kawazoe, Dr. Naoya Osawa, and the staff of the Ashiu field station of the Kyoto University Forest for their support during the study. Financial support was provided by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (no. 19780119) and a Grant-in-Aid for the 21st century COE program for Innovative Food and Environmental Studies Pioneered by Entomomimetic Sciences from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Forest Science, Faculty of Bioresource Sciences, Akita Prefectural University, Akita, 010-0195, Japan

    Inoue Mizuki

  2. Laboratory of Forest Biology, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Oiwake-cho, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Michimasa Yamasaki & Yuji Isagi

  3. The Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto University, Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Takehiko Kakutani

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  1. Inoue Mizuki
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  2. Michimasa Yamasaki
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Correspondence to Inoue Mizuki.

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Mizuki, I., Yamasaki, M., Kakutani, T. et al. Negligible impact of deer-induced habitat degradation on the genetic diversity of extant Bombus diversus populations in comparison with museum specimens. J Insect Conserv 14, 191–198 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-009-9245-y

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