Data from: Sex-specific graphs: Relating group-specific topology to demographic and landscape data

Sex-specific genetic structure is a commonly observed pattern among
vertebrate species. Facing differential selective pressures, individuals
may adopt sex-specific life history traits that ultimately shape genetic
variation among populations. Although differential dispersal dynamics are
commonly detected in the literature, few studies have used genetic
structure to investigate sex-specific functional connectivity. The recent
use of graph theoretic approaches in landscape genetics has demonstrated
network capacities to describe complex system behaviours where network
topology represents genetic interaction among subunits. Here, we partition
the overall genetic structure into sex-specific graphs, revealing
different male and female dispersal dynamics of a fisher (Pekania [Martes]
pennanti) metapopulation in southern Ontario. Our analyses based on
network topologies supported the hypothesis of male-biased dispersal.
Furthermore, we demonstrated that the effect of the landscape, identified
at the population level, could be partitioned among sex-specific strata.
We found that female connectivity was negatively correlated with snow
depth, whereas connectivity among males was not. Our findings underscore
the potential of conducting sex-specific analysis by identifying landscape
elements or configuration that differentially promotes or impedes
functional connectivity between sexes, revealing processes that may
otherwise remain cryptic. We propose that the sex-specific graph approach
would be applicable to other vagile species where differential
sex-specific processes are expected to occur.