Genetic Consequences of Forest Fragmentation in a Widespread Forest Bat (Natalus mexicanus, Chiroptera: Natalidae)

Luis Manuel Guevara-Chumacero,Aline Méndez-Rodríguez,Javier Juste,Ricardo López-Wilchis,Flor Rodríguez-Gómez,Alejandra Serrato-Díaz

doi:10.3390/d13040140

Luis Manuel Guevara-Chumacero, Aline Méndez-Rodríguez + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/d13040140

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Abstract

Recent historical and anthropogenic changes in the landscape causing habitat fragmentation can disrupt the connectivity of wild populations and pose a threat to the genetic diversity of multiple species. This study investigated the effect of habitat fragmentation on the structure and genetic diversity of the Mexican greater funnel-eared bat (Natalus mexicanus) throughout its distribution range in Mexico, whose natural habitat has decreased dramatically in recent years. Genetic structure and diversity were measured using the HVII hypervariable domain of the mitochondrial control region and ten nuclear microsatellite loci, to analyze historical and contemporary information, respectively. The mitochondrial and nuclear results pointed to a differential genetic structuring, derived mainly from philopatry in females. Our results also showed that genetic diversity was historically high and currently moderate; additionally, the contemporary gene flow between the groups observed was null. These findings confirm that the effects of habitat fragmentation have started to be expressed in populations and that forest loss is already building barriers to contemporary gene flow. The concern is that gene flow is a process essential to ensure that the genetic diversity of N. mexicanus populations (and probably of many other forest species) distributed in Mexico is preserved or increased in the long term by maintaining forest connectivity between locations.

Highlights

The fragmentation of natural habitats is a key issue for biodiversity and poses a threat to the genetic diversity of multiple species [1,2,3,4]
Our results show that contemporary levels of genetic diversity in N. mexicanus are moderate, and gene flow values between groups are either low or nil, in parallel with high values of population genetic differentiation
The group 1 locality in the Baja California peninsula is characterized by sarcocaul shrubland; the localities of groups 2 and 4 have a secondary shrub vegetation of low deciduous forest, and group 3 has pine and oak forests. These results suggest that the genetic differentiation of N. mexicanus in Mexico could be related to the great diversity of habitats where it thrives and are in agreement with those of a previous report [48]

Summary

Introduction

The fragmentation of natural habitats is a key issue for biodiversity and poses a threat to the genetic diversity of multiple species [1,2,3,4]. Fragmentation is a process of the change in the spatial structure from a relatively homogeneous environment to one with a progressively less homogeneous structure that is transformed into a heterogeneous habitat This can reduce the total area of a given habitat type, splitting the remaining habitat, and even increasing the isolation of remnants [5,6,7]. Bats are among the most abundant and diverse groups of mammals in tropical forests, playing a central role in pollination, regulation of insect populations, and seed dispersal [13,14] Despite their ability to fly, bats are vulnerable to the loss of genetic variation in response to anthropogenic fragmentation in tropical forests [15,16,17]

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