Landscape genetics of Physalaemus cuvieri in Brazilian Cerrado: Correspondence between population structure and patterns of human occupation and habitat loss

Abstract

It is now widely recognized that knowledge on population genetic structure is important to evaluate population viability and persistence or to establish conservation priorities. In this context, species that are locally abundant or widely distributed can be informative on how broad scale processes of habitat loss and fragmentation, as those caused by intensive human occupation, affect population genetic structure. In this paper, we analyzed population genetic structure of Physalaemus cuvieri (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae) in the core of the Cerrado biome, in the Goiás State, Central Brazil, using RAPD molecular markers. Local populations are genetically different according to RAPD markers, and an analysis of molecular variation (AMOVA) revealed a significant interpopulational variance component around 10%. However, these population differentiation patterns are not strongly structured in geographic space, and a Mantel spatial correlogram indicated only a slight significant spatial structure at short geographic distances. These patterns are expected by the ecological and life-history knowledge of the species, leading to a relatively low magnitude of population differentiation coupled with short distance spatial patterns. Moreover, even these weak patterns showed a signature of effects of human occupation and habitat loss on genetic differentiation at regional scale, with discontinuities to gene flow in two particular regions of the State with more intense habitat loss and older human settlement.