Data from: Landscape models for nuclear genetic diversity and genetic structure in white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus)

Dramatic changes in the North American landscape over the last 12 000
years have shaped the genomes of the small mammals, such as the
white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), which currently inhabit the
region. However, very recent interactions of populations with each other
and the environment are expected to leave the most pronounced signature on
rapidly evolving nuclear microsatellite loci. We analyzed landscape
characteristics and microsatellite markers of P. leucopus populations
along a transect from southern Ohio to northern Michigan, in order to
evaluate hypotheses about the spatial distribution of genetic
heterogeneity. Genetic diversity increased to the north and was best
approximated by a single-variable model based on habitat availability
within a 0.5-km radius of trapping sites. Interpopulation differentiation
measured by clustering analysis was highly variable and not significantly
related to latitude or habitat availability. Interpopulation
differentiation measured as FST values and chord distance was correlated
with the proportion of habitat intervening, but was best explained by
agricultural distance and by latitude. The observed gradients in diversity
and interpopulation differentiation were consistent with recent habitat
availability being the major constraint on effective population size in
this system, and contradicted the predictions of both the postglacial
expansion and core-periphery hypotheses.