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Gene Flow In Complex Landscapes: Testing Multiple Hypotheses With Causal Modeling., Samuel A. Cushman, Kevin Scot Mckelvey, Jim Hayden, Michael K. Schwartz

Wildlife Biology Faculty Publications

Predicting population-level effects of landscape change depends on identifying factors that influence population connectivity in complex landscapes. However, most putative movement corridors and barriers have not been based on empirical data. In this study, we identify factors that influence connectivity by comparing patterns of genetic similarity among 146 black bears (Ursus americanus), sampled across a 3,000-km2 study area in northern Idaho, with 110 landscape-resistance hypotheses. Genetic similarities were based on the pairwise percentage dissimilarity among all individuals based on nine microsatellite loci (average expected heterozygosityp0.79). Landscape-resistance hypotheses describe a range of potential relationships between movement cost and land cover, slope, …