Data from: Habitat specialisation 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 specialisation and genetic differentiation among populations. In order to test the link between forest specialisation 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 specialisation 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，最终改变物种进化潜力（evolutionary potential）并导致局域灭绝（local extinctions）。然而，生境破碎化对所有物种的影响并不均等，识别哪些生态性状（ecological traits）与物种对生境破碎化的敏感性相关，有助于优先开展保护工作（conservation efforts）。尽管物种生态学与灭绝易感性（extinction proneness）之间存在理论关联，但专门检验“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（comparative studies）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（bird species）采用比较研究方法，针对每个物种量化了其森林专化性（forest specialisation）相对水平以及种群间遗传分化（genetic differentiation among populations）程度。为检验森林专化性与森林破碎化易感性之间的关联，我们通过比较连续与破碎化森林景观（continuous and fragmented forest landscapes）中的种群遗传分化水平，评估了各物种对破碎化的响应。研究结果显示，对于鸟类这类移动生物（mobile organisms）而言，在极小的空间尺度（spatial scale）下即存在显著且较强的种群遗传结构；更重要的是，我们发现森林专化性物种相较于广适性物种（generalist ones），受森林破碎化的影响更为严重。最后，本研究结果表明，即便仅通过简单的生境专化性指数，即可作为生境破碎化所引发的遗传与种群动态后果（demographic consequences）的可靠预测因子，为保护生物学（conservation biology）提供一套实用且定量的可靠工具。