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Functional connectivity, quantified using landscape genetics, can inform conservation through the identification of factors linking genetic structure to landscape mechanisms. We used breeding habitat metrics, landscape attributes, and indices of grouse abundance, to compare fit between structural connectivity and genetic differentiation within five long-established Sage-Grouse Management Zones (MZ) I–V using microsatellite genotypes from 6,009 greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) collected across their range. We estimated structural connectivity using a circuit theory-based approach where we built resistance surfaces using thresholds dividing the landscape into “habitat” and “nonhabitat” and nodes were...
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This data set represents a preliminary attempt to define distinct areas of Sage-grouse occupation in North America. The 'boundaries' for subpopulations are not actually boundaries, but lines meant to encircle a specific group of leks. The difference may seem trivial, but it is significant. We did not establish an area associated with each population or subpopulation, and consequently we did not evaluate the associated habitat and/or landscape. This type of analysis would have required a specific assessment of the habitat within and between each of the identified populations and subpopulations. The descriptions of subpopulations are clearly a preliminary attempt to define distinct areas of occupation.
Tags: Alberta,
California,
Canada,
Centrocercus,
Colorado, All tags...
Greater Sage-grouse,
Gunnison Sage-grouse,
Idaho,
Montana,
Nevada,
North America,
North Dakota,
Oregon,
Sage-grouse,
Saskatchewan,
South Dakota,
United States,
Utah,
Washington,
Wyoming,
biogeography,
biota,
current,
distribution,
environment,
minimus,
population and community ecology,
population dynamics,
populations,
present-day,
range,
subpopulations,
urophasianus, Fewer tags
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Habitat and population fragmentation were considered as one of the top factors contributing to the recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision that listing greater sage-grouse was warranted but currently precluded. This study provides an approach that combines genetic markers and landscape analyses to delineate populations, estimate fragmentation and connectivity in sage-grouse populations, and potentially identify underlying causes that limit connectivity and isolate populations. State and federal agencies are focusing current management actions for greater sage-grouse in core areas containing the highest densities of breeding birds. The core area approach permits limited resources to be applied in regions that...
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