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Population structure, habitat features and genetic structure of managed red deer populations

Abstract:

Management of game ungulates alters population structure and habitat features, with potential effects on genetic structure. Here, we study 26 red deer (Cervus elaphus) populations in Spain. We used census data and habitat features as well as genetic information at 11 microsatellite markers from 717 individuals. We found that metapopulations presented a distribution associated with forest interruptions. Within metapopulations, fences did not have a significant effect on red deer genetic structure. The metapopulations we studied presented similar population structure, but they differed in habitat features and genetic structure. The metapopulation with higher resource availability showed a genetic structure pattern in which genetic relatedness between geographically close individuals was high while relatedness between geographically distant individuals was low. Contrarily, the metapopulation with lower resource availability presented a genetic structure pattern in which the genetic relatedness between individuals of different populations was independent of the geographic distance. We discuss the possible connection between resource availability and genetic structure. Finally, we did not find any population or environmental variable related to genetic differentiation within metapopulations. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.