Data from: Identification of source-sink dynamics in mountain lions of the Great Basin

Natural and anthropogenic boundaries have been shown to affect population dynamics and population structure for many species with movement patterns at the landscape level. Understanding population boundaries and movement rates in the field for species that are cryptic and occur at low densities is often extremely difficult and logistically prohibitive; however genetic techniques may offer insights that have previously been unattainable. We analyzed thirteen microsatellite loci for 739 mountain lions (Puma concolor) using muscle tissue samples from individuals in the Great Basin throughout Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range to test the hypothesis that heterogeneous hunting pressure results in source-sink dynamics at the landscape scale. We used a combination of non-spatial and spatial model-based Bayesian clustering methods to identify genetic populations. We then used a recently developed Bayesian multilocus genotyping method to estimate asymmetrical rates of contemporary movement between those sub-populations and to identify source and sink populations. We identified 2 populations at the highest level of genetic structuring with a total of 5 subpopulations in the Great Basin of Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada range. Our results suggest that source-sink dynamics occur at landscape scales for wide-ranging species, such as mountain lions, and that source populations may be those that are under relatively less hunting pressure and that occupy refugia.

诸多研究表明，自然边界与人为边界会对景观尺度下具有移动模式的诸多物种种群动态与种群结构产生影响。对于行踪隐秘且种群密度较低的物种而言，在野外开展种群边界与移动速率的研究往往极具难度，且在实操层面难以推行；不过遗传学技术或可提供此前无法企及的研究视角。本研究针对采自内华达州全境大盆地（Great Basin）及内华达山脉东部区域的739头美洲狮（Puma concolor）的肌肉组织样本，对13个微卫星位点（microsatellite loci）进行了分析，以此验证"异质性狩猎压力会在景观尺度上引发源汇动态"这一假说。本研究采用非空间贝叶斯聚类与基于空间模型的贝叶斯聚类相结合的方法，对遗传种群进行界定；随后借助新近开发的贝叶斯多位点基因分型方法，估算了这些亚种群间的不对称当代迁移速率，并对源种群与汇种群予以识别。在内华达大盆地与内华达山脉东部区域，本研究在最高层级的遗传结构下识别出2个大种群，共计5个亚种群。本研究结果显示，诸如美洲狮这类广布物种的源汇动态确实存在于景观尺度之上，且源种群通常为受狩猎压力相对较小、占据避难区域的种群。