Data from: Social organisation and genetic structure: insights from co-distributed bat populations

The impact of ecology and social organisation on genetic structure at landscape spatial scales, where gene dynamics shape evolution as well as determine susceptibility to habitat fragmentation, is poorly understood. Attempts to assess these effects must take into account the potentially confounding effects of history. We used microsatellites to compare genetic structure in seven bat species with contrasting patterns of roosting ecology and social organisation, all of which are co-distributed in an ancient forest habitat that has been exceptionally buffered from radical habitat shifts. Over one thousand individuals were captured at foraging sites and genotyped at polymorphic microsatellite loci. Analyses of spatially explicit genotype data revealed inter-species differences in the extent of movement and gene flow and genetic structure across continuous intact forest. Highest positive genetic structure was observed in tree-roosting taxa that roost either alone or in small groups. By comparison, a complete absence of genetic autocorrelation was noted in the cave-roosting colonial species across the study area. Our results thus reveal measurable inter-species differences in the natural limits of gene flow in an unmodified habitat, which we attribute to contrasting roosting ecology and social organisation. The consequences of ecology and behaviour for gene flow have important implications for conservation. In particular, tree-roosting species characterised by lower vagility and thus gene flow will be disproportionally impacted by landscape-scale forest clearance and habitat fragmentation, which are prevalent in the study region. Our method also highlights the usefulness of rapid sampling of foraging bats for assaying genetic structure, particularly where roosting sites are not always known.

在景观空间尺度下，生态学与社会组织模式对种群遗传结构（genetic structure）的影响尚未得到充分阐释——其中基因动态不仅塑造物种演化，同时决定了种群对生境破碎化（habitat fragmentation）的易感性。过往相关研究在评估这类影响时，往往未能充分考量历史因素可能带来的混杂效应。本研究利用微卫星（microsatellites）分子标记，对7种栖息生态学与社会组织模式存在显著差异的蝙蝠物种的种群遗传结构进行比较分析。所有研究物种均同域分布于一处未受剧烈生境变化干扰的古老森林生境中。研究人员在觅食地共捕获千余只个体，并对其多态性微卫星位点进行基因分型。通过对空间显性基因型数据的分析，研究团队发现：在连续完整的森林生境中，不同蝙蝠物种的活动范围、基因流（gene flow）强度与种群遗传结构均存在显著种间差异。单独栖息或小群栖息的树栖蝙蝠类群，呈现出最高水平的正向种群遗传结构。相较而言，研究区域内所有群居洞栖蝙蝠物种均未表现出遗传自相关现象。综上，本研究结果揭示了未受干扰生境中，物种间基因流自然上限的可量化种间差异，且该差异可归因于不同类群的栖息生态学与社会组织模式差异。生态学与行为模式对基因流的影响，对物种保护工作具有重要指导意义。具体而言，研究区域内广泛存在的景观尺度森林砍伐与生境破碎化，将对迁徙能力较弱、因此基因流水平较低的树栖蝙蝠物种造成不成比例的严重影响。本研究采用的方法同时表明，通过对觅食蝙蝠进行快速采样以分析种群遗传结构具有较高实用性，尤其适用于难以确定栖息位点的研究场景。