Data from: High gene flow in the American badger overrides habitat preferences and limits broadscale genetic structure

Habitat associations are a function of habitat preferences and dispersal
capabilities, both of which can influence how species responded to
Quaternary climatic changes and contemporary habitat heterogeneity.
Predicting resultant genetic structure is not always straightforward,
especially in species where high dispersal potential and habitat
preferences yield opposing predictions. The American badger has high
dispersal capabilities that predict widespread panmixia, but avoids
closed-canopy forests and clay soils, which could restrict gene flow and
create ecologically based population genetic structure. We used
mitochondrial sequence and microsatellite data sets to characterize how
these opposing forces contribute to genetic structure in badgers at a
continent-wide scale. Our data revealed an overall lack of ecologically
based population genetic structure, suggesting that high dispersal
capabilities were sufficiently realized to overcome most habitat-based
genetic structure. At a broadscale, badger gene flow is limited only by
geographic distance (isolation by distance) and large water barriers (Lake
Michigan and the Mississippi River). The absence of genetic structure in a
species with strong avoidance of unsuitable habitats advances our
understanding of when and how genetic structure emerges in widespread,
highly mobile species.