Data from: Habitat specialization predicts genetic response to fragmentation in tropical birds

Habitat fragmentation is one of the most severe threats to biodiversity as it may lead to changes in population genetic structure, with ultimate modifications of species evolutionary potential and local extinctions. Nonetheless, fragmentation does not equally affect all species and identifying which ecological traits are related to species sensitivity to habitat fragmentation could help prioritization of conservation efforts. Despite the theoretical link between species ecology and extinction proneness, comparative studies explicitly testing the hypothesis that particular ecological traits underlies species-specific population structure are rare. Here, we used a comparative approach on eight bird species, co-occurring across the same fragmented landscape. For each species, we quantified relative levels of forest specialization and genetic differentiation among populations. To test the link between forest specialization and susceptibility to forest fragmentation, we assessed species responses to fragmentation by comparing levels of genetic differentiation between continuous and fragmented forest landscapes. Our results revealed a significant and substantial population structure at a very small spatial scale for mobile organisms such as birds. More importantly, we found that specialist species are more affected by forest fragmentation than generalist ones. Finally, our results suggest that even a simple habitat specialization index can be a satisfying predictor of genetic and demographic consequences of habitat fragmentation, providing a reliable practical and quantitative tool for conservation biology.生境破碎化（Habitat fragmentation）是对生物多样性最严重的威胁之一，因其可引发种群遗传结构（population genetic structure）改变，最终导致物种进化潜力发生变化并引发局地灭绝。然而，破碎化对不同物种的影响并不均等，识别与物种对生境破碎化敏感性相关的生态性状，可为确定保护工作的优先顺序提供依据。尽管物种生态学与灭绝易感性之间存在理论关联，但明确检验“特定生态性状是物种特异性种群结构基础”这一假说的比较研究仍较为匮乏。本研究针对同一生境破碎化景观中共存的8种鸟类采用比较研究方法，为每个物种量化了其森林特化程度的相对水平以及种群间的遗传分化（genetic differentiation）水平。为检验森林特化程度与对森林破碎化敏感性之间的关联，我们通过对比连续森林与破碎化森林景观的遗传分化水平，评估了不同物种对生境破碎化的响应。研究结果显示，对于鸟类这类移动生物而言，在极小的空间尺度下便存在显著且程度可观的种群遗传结构。更为关键的是，我们发现森林特化物种相较于广适性物种，受森林破碎化的影响更为显著。最后，本研究结果表明，即便仅是简单的生境特化指数，也可作为生境破碎化所引发的遗传与种群后果的可靠预测因子，为保护生物学提供了一套兼具实用性与定量性的可靠工具。