Herbivore corridors sustain genetic footprint in plant populations: a case for Spanish drove roads
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Author and article information
Abstract
Habitat fragmentation is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity conservation and productivity, that are mediated by direct human impact. Its consequences include genetic depauperation, including phenomena such as inbreeding depression or reduction in genetic diversity. While the capacity of wild and domestic herbivores to sustain long-distance dispersal has been proven, the impact of herbivore corridors in plant population genetics remains to be observed. We conducted this study in the Conquense Drove Road in Spain, with a sustained use by livestock during centuries where transiting herds passed by twice a year en route to winter and summer pastures. We compared genetic descriptors of Plantago lagopus populations in the drove road with populations in the surrounding agricultural matrix, at varying distances from human settlements. We observed significant differences for coefficients of inbreeding between the drove road and the agricultural matrix, as well as significant trends for higher genetic diversity around human settlements. Trends for higher genetic diversity in drove roads may be present, although they were not significant with the available sample size. The resulting functional landscape has human settlements as dispersal hotspots, while the drove road act as a pollinator reservoir and possibly also as a linear structure facilitating long-distance dispersal in an agricultural matrix where local P. lagopus populations depend rather on short-distance dispersal. These results highlight the role of herbivore corridors for conserving the migration capacity of plants, and they contribute as well in understanding the role of human dispersal for the spread of invasive species.
Cite this as
2018. Herbivore corridors sustain genetic footprint in plant populations: a case for Spanish drove roads. PeerJ Preprints 6:e27222v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27222v1note This preprint is not peer-reviewed. You may wish to reference the subsequent peer-reviewed version of this article.
Author comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Sections
Supplemental Information
Genotyping of Plantago lagopus in Central Spain
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Alfredo García-Fernández performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Pablo Manzano conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Javier Seoane conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, prepared figures and/or tables, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Francisco M Azcárate conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
José M Iriondo contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
Begoña Peco conceived and designed the experiments, authored or reviewed drafts of the paper, approved the final draft.
DNA Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding the deposition of DNA sequences:
The sequences developed here for six microsatellites for Plantago lagopus are accessible via GenBank accession numbers MF490249 to MF490254.
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
The raw genotyping data of Plantago are provideed in supplementary file 1.
Funding
Financial support was provided by the Spanish MINECO (Projects CGL2011-24871, CGL2014-53789-R and CGL2016-77377-R) and the Madrid Regional Government (Project REMEDINAL-3). Financial support has also been provided by Instituto de Estudios “Don Juan Manuel” (Diputación de Albacete). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
