Data from: Comparative landscape genetic analyses show a Belgian motorway to be a gene flow barrier for red deer (Cervus elaphus), but not wild boars (Sus scrofa)

While motorways are often assumed to influence the movement behaviour of
large mammals, there are surprisingly few studies that show an influence
of these linear structures on the genetic make-up of wild ungulate
populations. Here, we analyse the spatial genetic structure of red deer
(Cervus elaphus) and wild boars (Sus scrofa) along a stretch of motorway
in the Walloon part of Belgium. Altogether 876 red deer were genotyped at
13 microsatellite loci, and 325 wild boars at 14 loci. In the case of the
red deer, different genetic clustering tools identified two genetic
subpopulations whose borders matched the motorway well. Conversely, no
genetic structure was identified in the case of the wild boar. Analysis of
isolation-by-distance patterns of pairs of individuals on the same side
and on different sides of the motorway also suggested that the road was a
barrier to red deer, but not to wild boar movement. While telemetry
studies seem to confirm that red deer are more affected by motorways then
wild boar, the red deer sample size was also much larger than that of the
wild boars. We therefore repeated the analysis of genetic structure in the
red deer with randomly sub-sampled datasets of decreasing size. The power
to detect the genetic structure using clustering methods decreased with
decreasing sample size.

尽管学界普遍认为高速公路会影响大型哺乳动物的移动行为，但令人意外的是，鲜有研究证实这类线性构筑物会对野生有蹄类动物种群的遗传组成产生影响。本研究针对比利时瓦隆地区一段高速公路沿线的马鹿（*Cervus elaphus*）与野猪（*Sus scrofa*）的空间遗传结构展开分析。研究共对876头马鹿的13个微卫星位点（microsatellite loci）进行基因分型，对325头野猪的14个微卫星位点进行基因分型。针对马鹿的分析显示，不同遗传聚类工具（genetic clustering tools）均鉴定出两个遗传亚种群（genetic subpopulations），其种群边界与该高速公路的走向高度吻合。与之相反，野猪种群未检测到显著的遗传结构。对公路同侧与异侧个体间的距离隔离模式（isolation-by-distance）进行分析后，同样证实该公路会阻碍马鹿的移动，但对野猪的移动无明显阻隔作用。尽管已有遥测研究（telemetry studies）表明，马鹿受高速公路的影响程度高于野猪，但马鹿的样本量也远大于野猪。因此，我们采用随机抽样的方式对马鹿的数据集进行降采样并重复遗传结构分析，结果显示，通过聚类方法检测到遗传结构的统计效力随样本量缩减而降低。