Microsatellite data for Cryptopygus antarcticus travei

Biodiversity patterns are shaped by the interplay between geodiversity and
organis-mal characteristics. Superimposing genetic structure onto
landscape heterogeneity(i.e., landscape genetics) can help to disentangle
their interactions and better under-stand population dynamics. Previous
studies on the sub-Antarctic Prince EdwardIslands (located midway between
Antarctica and Africa) have highlighted the im-portance of landscape and
climatic barriers in shaping spatial genetic patterns andhave drawn
attention to the value of these islands as natural laboratories for
study-ing fundamental concepts in biology. Here, we assessed the
fine-scale spatial geneticstructure of the springtail, Cryptopygus
antarcticus travei, which is endemic to MarionIsland, in tandem with
high-resolution geological data. Using a species-specific suiteof
microsatellite markers, a fine-scale sampling design incorporating
landscape com-plexity and generalised linear models (GLMs), we examined
genetic patterns overlaidonto high-resolution digital surface models and
surface geology data across two 1-kmsampling transects. The GLMs revealed
that genetic patterns across the landscapeclosely track landscape
resistance data in concert with landscape discontinuities andbarriers to
gene flow identified at a scale of a few metres. These results show
thatthe island's geodiversity plays an important role in shaping
biodiversity patterns andintraspecific genetic diversity. This study
illustrates that fine-scale genetic patternsin soil arthropods are
markedly more structured than anticipated, given that previ-ous studies
have reported high levels of genetic diversity and evidence of
geneticstructing linked to landscape changes for springtail species and
considering the ho-mogeneity of the vegetation complexes characteristic of
the island at the scale oftens to hundreds of metres. By incorporating
fine-scale and high-resolution landscapefeatures into our study, we were
able to explain much of the observed spatial geneticpatterns. Our study
highlights geodiversity as a driver of spatial complexity. Morewidely, it
holds important implications for the conservation and management of
thesub-Antarctic islands.