Canada lynx gene flow across a mountain transition zone in western North America

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristen M Watt ◽  
Elizabeth M Kierepka ◽  
Catarina C. Ferreira ◽  
Erin L Koen ◽  
Jeffrey R. Row ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
North America ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Forest Cover ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Lynx Lynx ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Ecological Divergence ◽  
Canada Lynx ◽  
Barrier Effects

Mountain ecotones have the potential to cause multiple patterns in divergence, from simple barrier effects to more fundamental ecological divergence. Most work in mountain ecotones in North America has focused on reinforcement between refugial populations, making prediction of how mountains impact species that are not restricted to separate glacial refugia remains difficult. This study focused on the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis Kerr, 1792), a highly mobile felid considered to be a habitat and dietary specialist. Specifically, we used 14 microsatellite loci and landscape genetic tools to investigate if the Rocky Mountains and associated climatic transitions influence lynx genetic differentiation in western North America. Although lynx exhibited high gene flow across the region, analyses detected structuring of neutral genetic variation across our study area. Gene flow for lynx most strongly related to temperature and elevation compared to other landscape variables (terrain roughness, percent forest cover, and habitat suitability index) and geographic distance alone. Overall, genetic structure in lynx is most consistent with barrier effects created by the Rocky Mountains rather than ecological divergence. Furthermore, warmer temperatures had a measurable impact on gene flow, which suggests connectivity may further decrease in peripheral or fragmented populations as climate warms.

A New Zygethopolys from Kentucky and a Key to the Members of the Genus. (Chilopoda: Lithobiomorpha: Lithobiidae: Ethopolyinae)

1953 ◽  
Vol 85 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph E. Crabill
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
New Species ◽  
North America ◽  
Rocky Mountains ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Established Species

Almost all of the members of the subfamily Ethopolyinae occur in western North America, a few Pacific islands, the Orient and Europe, but only one established species had been known from North America east of the Rocky Mountains. This widespread and very common form, Bothropolys multidentatus (Newport), ranges throughout the East as far west as Missouri. The present new species is therefore of special interest in that it is the second endemic member of the subfamily to he recorded from east of the Rockies. The only other members of Zygethopolys, a genus closely allied to Bothropolys, are known only from Alaska, British Columbia, and thk state of Washington.

Fine-scale genetic structure and dispersal in Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) within Alberta, Canada

2006 ◽  
Vol 84 (8) ◽  
pp. 1112-1119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Véronique Campbell ◽  
Curtis Strobeck
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Lynx Lynx ◽  
Fine Scale ◽  
Lynx Canadensis ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Canada Lynx ◽  
The Individual

Although mammals are typically characterized by male-biased dispersal, field studies of lynx conflict as to whether dispersal is male-biased or lacks sex-bias. To resolve this issue we dissect fine-scale genetic structure and analyze dispersal in regard to gender using 19 microsatellite loci, teemed with extensive sampling (n = 272 adults) of Canada lynx ( Lynx canadensis Kerr, 1792) throughout Alberta. The level of genetic variation was high (mean He = 71.6%), as reported in previous genetic studies of lynx. No significant barriers to gene flow were detected within Alberta’s lynx population. Despite several reports of long-distance movements in lynx, we observed a slight significant negative correlation between pairwise relatedness values and geographic distance (rM = –0.025, P = 0.048), indicating a decrease in relatedness between individuals as their sampling distance increases. When the same analysis was performed separately on sexes, the slopes of the individual regressions did not differ significantly between males and females (P = 0.708). Our molecular results suggest a lack of sex-biased dispersal in Canada lynx, similar to reports on other lynx species.

scholarly journals Historical distributions of bobcats (Lynx rufus) and Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) suggest no range shifts in British Columbia, Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 96 (12) ◽  
pp. 1299-1308 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Gooliaff ◽  
K.E. Hodges
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
North America ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Lynx Rufus ◽  
Range Shifts ◽  
Lynx Lynx ◽  
Lynx Canadensis ◽  
Range Margin ◽  
Canada Lynx ◽  
Range Dynamics

Species across the planet are shifting their ranges in response to climate change and habitat loss. However, range shifts may vary, with populations moving in some areas but remaining stable in others; the conditions that encourage range stability rather than range shifts are poorly known. Bobcats (Lynx rufus (Schreber, 1777)) and Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis Kerr, 1792) are congeneric mesocarnivores with wide ranges across North America and range overlap in southern boreal and montane forests (the southern edge for lynx and the northern edge for bobcat). The ranges of both species are shifting in some parts of North America, in most cases resulting in a northward expansion for bobcats and a northward contraction for lynx. However, their range dynamics in the Pacific Northwest, which contains the northwestern range margin for bobcats and the southwestern range margin for lynx, have not been thoroughly documented. Here, we examine whether the range of each species has shifted in British Columbia (BC), Canada, provincially during 1983–2013 or in central BC during 1935–2013. Trapping records indicated that ranges have remained stable, and surveys from trappers supported these findings. Our findings are consistent with previous work showing that many wide-ranging species do not shift their range uniformly across their entire range edge. For bobcats and lynx, their range stability in BC contrasts with their range dynamics in other parts of North America.

scholarly journals Barrier to Gene Flow Between Eastern and Western Populations of Cronartium ribicola in North America

2000 ◽  
Vol 90 (10) ◽  
pp. 1073-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. C. Hamelin ◽  
R. S. Hunt ◽  
B. W. Geils ◽  
G. D. Jensen ◽  
V. Jacobi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
New Mexico ◽  
North America ◽  
Random Amplified Polymorphic Dna ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Genetic Distances ◽  
Group Method ◽  
Cronartium Ribicola ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Pair Group

The population structure of Cronartium ribicola from eastern and western North America was studied to test the null hypothesis that populations are panmictic across the continent. Random amplified polymorphic DNA markers previously characterized in eastern populations were mostly fixed in western populations, yielding high levels of genetic differentiation between eastern and western populations (φst = 0.55; θ = 0.36; P < 0.001). An unweighted pair-group method, arithmetic mean dendro-gram based on genetic distances separated the four eastern and four western populations into two distinct clusters along geographic lines. Similarly, a principal component analysis using marker frequency yielded one cluster of eastern populations and a second cluster of western populations. The population from New Mexico was clearly within the western cluster in both analyses, confirming the western origin of this recent introduction. This population was completely fixed (Hj = 0.000; n = 45) at all loci suggesting a severe recent population bottleneck. Genetic distances were low among populations of western North America (0.00 to 0.02) and among eastern populations (0.00 to 0.02), indicating a very similar genetic composition. In contrast, genetic distances between eastern and western populations were large, and all were significantly different from 0 (0.07 to 0.19; P < 0.001). Indirect estimates of migration were high among western populations, including the number of migrants among pairs of populations (Nm > 1) between New Mexico and British Columbia populations, but were smaller than one migrant per generation between eastern and western populations. These results suggest the presence of a barrier to gene flow between C. ribicola populations from eastern and western North America.

Synchrony in the snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) cycle in northwestern North America, 1970–2012

2013 ◽  
Vol 91 (8) ◽  
pp. 562-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. Krebs ◽  
Knut Kielland ◽  
John Bryant ◽  
Mark O’Donoghue ◽  
Frank Doyle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
North America ◽  
Northwest Territories ◽  
Time Window ◽  
Lepus Americanus ◽  
Adjacent Area ◽  
Lynx Lynx ◽  
Lynx Canadensis ◽  
Canada Lynx ◽  
Northwestern North America

Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus Erxleben, 1777) fluctuate in 9–10 year cycles throughout much of their North American range. Regional synchrony has been assumed to be the rule for these cycles, so that hare populations in virtually all of northwestern North America have been assumed to be in phase. We gathered qualitative and quantitative data on hare numbers and fur returns of Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis Kerr, 1792) in the boreal forest regions of Alaska, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and northern British Columbia to describe synchrony in the time window of 1970–2012. Broad-scale synchrony in lynx fur returns was strong from 1970 to about 1995 but then seemed to break down in different parts of this region. Hare populations at 20 sites in Alaska, the Yukon, and Northwest Territories showed peak populations that lagged by 1–4 years during the 1990s and 2000s cycles. The simplest hypothesis to explain these patterns of asynchrony in hare cycles is the movement of predators from British Columbia north into the Yukon and then east into the Northwest Territories and west into Alaska. A traveling wave of these cycles is clearly seen in the lynx fur returns from western Canada and Alaska from 1970 to 2009. One consequence of a failure of synchrony is that hare predators like Canada lynx and Great-horned Owls (Bubo virginianus (Gmelin, 1788)) can move from one adjacent area to the next within this region and survive long enough to prolong low densities in hare populations that have declined earlier.

Phylogeography of moose in western North America

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas J DeCesare ◽  
Byron V Weckworth ◽  
Kristine L Pilgrim ◽  
Andrew B D Walker ◽  
Eric J Bergman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Complete Mitochondrial Genome ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Phenotype Data ◽  
Continental Glaciation

Abstract Subspecies designations within temperate species’ ranges often reflect populations that were isolated by past continental glaciation, and glacial vicariance is believed to be a primary mechanism behind the diversification of several subspecies of North American cervids. We used genetics and the fossil record to study the phylogeography of three moose subspecies (Alces alces andersoni, A. a. gigas, and A. a. shirasi) in western North America. We sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome (16,341 base pairs; n = 60 moose) and genotyped 13 nuclear microsatellites (n = 253) to evaluate genetic variation among moose samples. We also reviewed the fossil record for detections of all North American cervids to comparatively assess the evidence for the existence of a southern refugial population of moose corresponding to A. a. shirasi during the last glacial maximum of the Pleistocene. Analysis of mtDNA molecular variance did not support distinct clades of moose corresponding to currently recognized subspecies, and mitogenomic haplotype phylogenies did not consistently distinguish individuals according to subspecies groupings. Analysis of population structure using microsatellite loci showed support for two to five clusters of moose, including the consistent distinction of a southern group of moose within the range of A. a. shirasi. We hypothesize that these microsatellite results reflect recent, not deep, divergence and may be confounded by a significant effect of geographic distance on gene flow across the region. Review of the fossil record showed no evidence of moose south of the Wisconsin ice age glaciers ≥ 15,000 years ago. We encourage the integration of our results with complementary analyses of phenotype data, such as morphometrics, originally used to delineate moose subspecies, for further evaluation of subspecies designations for North American moose.

Natural intersectional hybridization between North American species of Populus (Salicaceae) in sections Aigeiros and Tacamahaca. III. Paleobotany and evolution

1984 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Eckenwalder
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
North America ◽  
North American Species ◽  
Sister Species ◽  
Western North America ◽  
Apparent Absence ◽  
Hybrid Species ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Evolutionary Role

Fossilized leaves resembling those of contemporary intersectional hybrids occur together with leaves assignable to sections Tacamahaca Spach and Aigeiros Duby in Miocene and Pliocene sediments in western North America. They are not referable to any particular extant hybrid species and are assigned to the extinct Populus × parcedentata Axelrod. Together with other evidence, these ancient hybrids raise questions concerning the evolutionary role of hybridization between species of the two parent sections. Present evidence about hybridization as a bridge for intersectional gene flow is contradictory. The apparent absence of backcrossed individuals in most studied hybridizing populations is offset by morphological pecularitics shared by sympatric cottonwoods and balsam poplars that are not shared with their cladistic sister species.

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