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Spatial scaling and multi-model inference in landscape genetics: Martes americana in northern Idaho

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Abstract

Individual-based analyses relating landscape structure to genetic distances across complex landscapes enable rigorous evaluation of multiple alternative hypotheses linking landscape structure to gene flow. We utilize two extensions to increase the rigor of the individual-based causal modeling approach to inferring relationships between landscape patterns and gene flow processes. First, we add a univariate scaling analysis to ensure that each landscape variable is represented in the functional form that represents the optimal scale of its association with gene flow. Second, we use a two-step form of the causal modeling approach to integrate model selection with null hypothesis testing in individual-based landscape genetic analysis. This series of causal modeling indicated that gene flow in American marten in northern Idaho was primarily related to elevation, and that alternative hypotheses involving isolation by distance, geographical barriers, effects of canopy closure, roads, tree size class and an empirical habitat model were not supported. Gene flow in the Northern Idaho American marten population is therefore driven by a gradient of landscape resistance that is a function of elevation, with minimum resistance to gene flow at 1500 m.

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Acknowledgments

This research was primarily supported by the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and Western Washington University, Huxley College of the Environment. We especially thank Jim Hayden of Idaho Fish and Game for his support and the RMRS Wildlife Genetics Lab in Missoula, MT. We also thank the two anonymous reviewers and Rolf Holderegger for their helpful insights and comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forestry, Northern Arizona University, P.O. Box 1508, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA

    Tzeidle N. Wasserman

  2. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, 800 E Beckwith, Missoula, MT, 59801, USA

    Samuel A. Cushman & Michael K. Schwartz

  3. Huxley College of the Environment, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, 98225, USA

    David O. Wallin

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  1. Tzeidle N. Wasserman
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  2. Samuel A. Cushman
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Correspondence to Tzeidle N. Wasserman.

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Wasserman, T.N., Cushman, S.A., Schwartz, M.K. et al. Spatial scaling and multi-model inference in landscape genetics: Martes americana in northern Idaho. Landscape Ecol 25, 1601–1612 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-010-9525-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-010-9525-7

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