Data from: Fragmentation of Atlantic Forest has not affected gene flow of a widespread seed-dispersing bat

Habitat loss and resultant fragmentation are major threats to
biodiversity, particularly in tropical and subtropical ecosystems. It is
increasingly urgent to understand fragmentation effects, which are often
complex and vary across taxa, time and space. We determined whether recent
fragmentation of Atlantic forest is causing population subdivision in a
widespread and important Neotropical seed-disperser: Artibeus lituratus
(Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Genetic structure within highly fragmented
forest in Paraguay was compared to that in mostly contiguous forest in
neighboring Misiones, Argentina. Further, observed genetic structure
across the fragmented landscape was compared with expected levels of
structure for similar timespans in realistic simulated landscapes under
different degrees of reduction in gene flow. If fragmentation
significantly reduced successful dispersal, greater population
differentiation and stronger isolation-by-distance would be expected in
the fragmented than in the continuous landscape, and genetic structure in
the fragmented landscape should be similar to structure for simulated
landscapes where dispersal had been substantially reduced. Instead, little
genetic differentiation was observed and no significant correlation was
found between genetic and geographic distance in fragmented or continuous
landscapes. Furthermore, comparison of empirical and simulated landscapes
indicated empirical results were consistent with regular long-distance
dispersal and high migration rates. Our results suggest maintenance of
high gene flow for this relatively mobile and generalist species, which
could be preventing or significantly delaying reduction in population
connectivity in fragmented habitat. Our conclusions apply to A. lituratus
in Interior Atlantic Forest, and do not contradict broad evidence that
habitat fragmentation is contributing to extinction of populations and
species, and poses a threat to biodiversity worldwide.