Gene flow and demographic history of leopards (Panthera pardus) in the central Indian highlands

Gene flow is a critical ecological process that must be maintained in order to counteract the detrimental effects of genetic drift in sub-divided populations, with conservation benefits ranging from promoting the persistence of small populations to spreading adaptive traits in changing environments. We evaluated historical and contemporary gene flow and effective population sizes of leopards in a landscape in central India using non-invasive sampling. Despite the dramatic changes in land use patterns in this landscape through recent times, we did not detect any signs that the leopard populations have been through a genetic bottleneck and they appear to have maintained migration-drift equilibrium. We found that historical levels of gene flow (mean mh = 0.07) were significantly higher than contemporary levels (mean mc = 0.03) and populations with large effective population sizes (Satpura and Kanha Tiger Reserves) are the larger exporters of migrants at both time scales. The greatest decli...

基因流（gene flow）是抵消分化种群中遗传漂变负面影响、维持种群存续的关键生态过程，其保护效益涵盖促进小种群存续、在环境变化中传播适应性性状等多个维度。本研究采用非侵入式采样法，对印度中部某区域内豹种群的历史与当代基因流水平及有效种群规模开展了评估。尽管该区域近期土地利用格局发生了剧烈变动，但未检测到豹种群经历遗传瓶颈（genetic bottleneck）的迹象，且其种群似乎维持了迁移-漂变平衡（migration-drift equilibrium）。研究结果显示，历史时期的基因流水平（均值mh=0.07）显著高于当代水平（均值mc=0.03）；有效种群规模较大的萨特普拉与坎哈老虎保护区种群，在两个时间尺度上均为主要的迁出种群。下降幅度最大的……