Abstract
Conservation genetics is important in the management of endangered species, helping to understand their connectivity and long‐term viability, thus identifying populations of importance for conservation. The pond bat (Myotis dasycneme) is a rare species classified as “Near Threatened” with a wide but patchy Palearctic distribution. A total of 277 samples representing populations in Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Hungary, and Russia were used in the genetic analyses; 224 samples representing Denmark, Germany, and Russia were analyzed at 10 microsatellite loci; 241 samples representing all areas were analyzed using mitochondrial D‐loop and cytochrome B sequences. A Bayesian clustering approach revealed two poorly resolved clusters, one representing the Danish and German groups and the other the Russian group. However, significantly different pairwise F ST and D EST estimates were observed between the Danish and German groups and between the Danish and Russian groups suggesting a recent population structure. These conflicting results might be attributed to the effect of migration or low resolution due to the number of microsatellite markers used. After concatenating the two mitochondrial sequences, analysis detected significant genetic differentiation between all populations, probably due to genetic drift combined with a founder event. The phylogenetic tree suggested a closer relationship between the Russian and Northern European populations compared to the Hungarian population, implying that the latter belongs to an older ancestral population. This was supported by the observed haplotype network and higher nucleotide diversity in this population. The genetic structuring observed in the Danish/German pond bat stresses the need for a cross‐border management between the two countries. Further, the pronounced mtDNA structuring, together with the indicated migration between nearby populations suggest philopatric female behavior but male migration, emphasizes the importance of protecting suitable habitat mosaics to maintain a continuum of patches with dense pond bat populations across the species' distribution range.
Highlights
A total of 277 samples representing populations in Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Hungary, and Russia were used in the genetic analyses; 224 samples representing Denmark, Germany, and Russia were analyzed at 10 microsatellite loci; 241 samples representing all areas were analyzed using mitochondrial D‐loop and cytochrome B sequences
The genetic relationship among the concatenated haplotypes an‐ alyzed using the Bayesian approach implemented in MrBayes 3.2.6 (Ronquist et al, 2012) (Figure 6) supported the distant relationship of the Hungarian and Russian pond bats compared to the Danish, TA B L E 5 Results of assignment test and detection of first‐generation migrants based on seven microsatellite markers (GENECLASS2; Piry et al, 2004)
This study provides new insights into the conservation genetics of the pond bat with emphasis on the genetic relationship between populations in northernmost Germany and in Jutland, Denmark
Summary
Conservation genetics is an important tool in the management of endangered species, resolving population connectivity and thereby informing us of the long‐term viability of a species, identify‐ ing populations in special need of conservation (Pérez‐Espona & ConGRESS Consortium, 2017; Stockwell, Hendry, & Kinnison, 2003). In January 2010, this bat hibernated in a bunker in Schafstedt, northern Germany, 250 km south of Mønsted, and the following summer, it bred in its natal roost site in Methorst (Jagd & Artenschutz, 2010). This obser‐ vation may indicate that there is some dispersal and cohesion among the pond bat populations of Jutland and Schleswig‐Holstein. The objective of the present study was to investigate the ge‐ netic population structure of pond bat mainly in Denmark and Germany (including fewer samples from Latvia, Hungary, and Russia) based on variation in ten microsatellite markers, the con‐ trol region (CR), and cytochrome B (CytB) of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). As pond bat populations have declined during the last decades (Piraccini, 2016), we tested if this was reflected in the species’ genetic makeup. mtDNA markers were used to quantify genetic diversity and population structure among all the sampled populations, and to try to uncover demographic history, for example, in terms of former population expansions despite small, unequal sample sizes
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