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Riparian areas potentially provide crucial corridors through fragmented landscape for black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla) source-sink system

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Abstract

Dispersal is a foundational ecological and evolutionary process that facilitates population connectivity and resiliency and yet is vastly understudied. With landscape genetics, we can elucidate how environmental features and patch characteristics influence gene flow and therefore dispersal. Our main objective was to investigate how landscape features influence gene flow in the black-capped vireo source-sink system in central Texas. We genotyped 338 black-capped vireos at 12 microsatellite loci from 6 differentiated populations to test the relationships of Euclidean distance, elevation, and land cover types (water, development, forest, scrub, open, agriculture and riparian) with gene flow. We also tested how at-site variables, brown-headed cowbird control and area of scrub habitat, affected gene flow in our models. We found that riparian and agricultural areas facilitate gene flow while development and open habitat impede gene flow. Agriculture as a potential corridor was an unexpected finding in need of further study but indicates an exciting new avenue for black-capped vireo dispersal research. In combination with findings from Dittmar et al. (2014), we inferred that riparian areas may be important corridors for black-capped vireo dispersal during post-fledgling movements, particularly in fragmented landscapes. Therefore, protecting riparian areas may help mitigate the isolating effects of habitat fragmentation and would be an important conservation effort as habitat fragmentation continues in the future.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our funding agency, the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), Department of Defense, through project RC-2120 to J. Lawler. Special thanks to the private landowners, Texas State Parks and Wildlife, Colorado Bend State Park, Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Research, and the Natural Resources Division, particularly D. Cimprich and his team at Fort Hood for providing us access and resources for this research. Thanks to P. Byerly, S. Duke-Sylvester, B. Moon, J. Neigel, and J. Sperry for their valuable comments.

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  1. Samantha S. Hauser

    Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, 53211, Milwaukee, WI, USA

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Billeaud Hall Room 108, 410 East St. Mary Blvd, 70503, Lafayette, LA, USA

    Samantha S. Hauser & Paul L. Leberg

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  1. Samantha S. Hauser
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Correspondence to Samantha S. Hauser.

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Hauser, S.S., Leberg, P.L. Riparian areas potentially provide crucial corridors through fragmented landscape for black-capped vireo (Vireo atricapilla) source-sink system. Conserv Genet 22, 1–10 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-020-01314-1

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