Application of Genetic Bottleneck Testing to the Investigation of Amphibian Declines: a Case Study with Natterjack Toads

Conservation Biology - Tập 15 Số 1 - Trang 266-270 - 2001
Trevor Beebee1, Graham Rowe1
1School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QG, United Kingdom

Tóm tắt

Abstract: Declines of amphibians are causing widespread concern and in some cases have been explained by factors such as climate change and the spread of microbial pathogens. A problem remains, however, in the unequivocal demonstration of decline in situations where populations may be undergoing natural fluctuations in abundance. We describe the application of a genetic test for bottlenecks (Cornuet & Luikart 1996) that should distinguish between natural oscillations and true population declines. British natterjack toads (  Bufo calamita ) provide examples of populations that have not declined in recent decades, populations that have declined, and populations in which trends are unclear. Microsatellite allele frequency data from these populations were tested for heterozygote excess and shifts in allele frequency distributions, and inferences from these computations about bottlenecks (i.e., persistently smaller population sizes than the recent means) were compared with demographic information. The genetic test correctly identified bottlenecks and should therefore prove useful in demonstrating whether amphibian declines have occurred where long‐term demographic time series are not available.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

10.1016/0006-3207(94)90355-7

Beebee T. J. C., 1996, Ecology and conservation of amphibians

Cornuet J. M., 1996, Description and power analysis of two tests for detecting recent population bottlenecks from allele frequency data., Genetics, 144, 2001, 10.1093/genetics/144.4.2001

10.1046/j.1523-1739.1997.96318.x

Di Rienzo A., 1994, Mutational processes of simple sequence repeat loci in human populations., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 91, 3166, 10.1073/pnas.91.8.3166

10.2307/2404977

10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.97185.x

10.1111/j.1523-1739.1998.96388.x

10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00414.x

10.1098/rspb.1998.0326

Pechmann H. K., 1994, Putting declining amphibian populations in perspective: natural fluctuations and human impacts., Herpetologica, 50, 65

10.1126/science.253.5022.892

10.1093/jhered/90.4.502

10.1046/j.1523-1739.1994.08010072.x

10.1038/19297

10.1046/j.1523-1739.1995.9051295.x-i1

10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00387.x

10.1046/j.1365-294X.1997.00238.x

10.1126/science.253.5022.860

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Conservation Biology

Tập 15 Số 1

266-270

Thông tin tác giả