The common ground in landscape effects on gene flow in two newt species in an agroecosystem

Maintaining habitat connectivity is crucial for maintaining genetic diversity and reducing the risk of inbreeding depression in numerous species. Human-modified habitats pose a threat to population persistence, particularly for amphibians that require both aquatic and terrestrial habitats and often exhibit low dispersal capacity. In this study, we investigated the genetic structure and variation of two sympatric newt species, Triturus cristatus and Lissotriton vulgaris, in an urbanized and agricultural landscape. Using a multiscale resistance modeling approach, we evaluated how landscape features affect gene flow in both species. Our results confirmed that the less abundant T. cristatus exhibited more genetically distinct demes than the more common L. vulgaris, which showed a more subtle structure. Additionally, levels of genetic variation were lower in T. cristatus than in L. vulgaris, but with a similar spatial distribution pattern across shared ponds. We found that the proportion of ..., The study area, of approximately 130 km2, is located in the municipalities Temse and Kruibeke (Belgium). In the period March-May 2018, during the newts’ breeding season, 55 ponds were sampled using one to five Dewsbury Newt Traps and four ponds using three to four traps type ‘Vermandel’, with the number of traps varying with pond size. Most ponds were visited three times (12 ponds were sampled twice and three ponds once. The sex of each adult newt was identified on the basis of the sexually dimorphic cloaca and on the presence of a crest in male newts. A cloacal swab was taken from each individual newt with cotton swabs. We aimed to collect 30 samples per species and sex in each pond. In June 2018, larvae were caught using dip nets, and tail clips were taken. We aimed at sampling 30 larvae per species and pond. In three ponds, no newts were found. Swabs were air-dried for several hours and stored at room temperature in the dark for a maximum period of one month. Tail clips were taken, p..., raw_Tcrist_genotypes
The CSV file shows the microsatellite genotypes of T. cristatus for all 31 microsatellite markers without low-quality genotypes, and with recaptures and full siblings still included. In the first eight columns, the following information is provided: the sample ID, the ID of the pond/deme, the life stage of the individual, the trap number indicating if (sub)adult newts were caught in the same or different trap on a particular day, the sex (m: male; f: female), sampling date (yyyy-mm-dd) and the longitude followed by the latitude of the pond (WGS84). The next 31 columns represent the different microsatellite markers with the loci names mentioned in the column headers. Alleles are separated by a forward slash. Unavailable or unknown information is denoted with “NA”, missing genotypes with “NA/NA”.
filtered_Tcrist_genotypes
The CSV file shows the microsatellite genotypes of T. cristatus without low-quality genotypes, recaptures and full siblings. The same information is...