Data from: The effect of habitat fragmentation on finescale population structure of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica)

We examined the impact of recent anthropogenic habitat fragmentation on the genetic structure of wood frog (Rana sylvatica) breeding sites in Wellington County of Ontario, Canada. In addition to geographic distance (average pairwise distance ~22 km, greatest distance ~50.22 km), four landscape features hypothesized to contribute to genetic differentiation between breeding sites were considered: road density, a major highway (highway 401), canopy cover, and watershed discontinuity. Analysis of data from 396 samples across nine breeding sites using eight microsatellite DNA loci, revealed a small degree of significant genetic structure between breeding sites. The presence of highway 401 and road density were correlated with small but statistically significant structure observed between several groups of sites. One outlier breeding site outside of Wellington County located within the city of Toronto, had significantly lower allelic richness and much larger population differentiation with the Wellington sites. Our data suggest that recent fragmentation has had an effect on wood frog population structure and also demonstrate the importance of dispersal for this species in maintaining levels of genetic diversity.

本研究探究了近期人为生境破碎化对加拿大安大略省惠灵顿县内木蛙（Rana sylvatica）繁殖位点遗传结构的影响。除地理距离（两两平均距离约22公里，最大距离约50.22公里）外，本研究还考量了四种被认为会影响繁殖位点间遗传分化的景观特征：道路密度、401号高速公路、冠层覆盖度以及流域不连续性。本研究针对9个繁殖位点的396份样本，利用8个微卫星DNA（microsatellite DNA）位点进行分析，结果显示繁殖位点间存在微弱但显著的遗传结构。401号高速公路的存在与道路密度，与多个位点组间观测到的微弱但具统计学显著性的遗传结构显著相关。位于多伦多市境内、惠灵顿县外的1个异常繁殖位点，其等位基因丰富度显著低于惠灵顿县内的位点，且与惠灵顿县位点间的种群分化程度更高。本研究数据表明，近期的生境破碎化已对木蛙种群结构产生影响，同时证实了扩散行为对该物种维持遗传多样性水平的重要性。